{a briefing}

a window into last night......and, of course the names are not included to protect the innocent. ;)

** the boys demanded that i stick my hand in the "slim" bucket, i complied. gross, yep, i'm a girl.

** after a few phone calls, before we entered the woods, we did receive permission from the top secret agent that monitors secret dinosaur locations to enter the site. however, they had to promise not to tell ANYONE. one sweet boy wanted to know if that included their parents which launched into a "i would never tell you to keep something from your parents, etc, etc, etc...." but, good question little guy!!!

** hike into the woods, HUGE success - three of the boys were beside themself with excitement. the dinosaur bones described by the secret map (that they were not allowed to see) led us right to THE spot. they followed the clues - found the log, the branches, and ultimately the sandy blocks...immediately they began chipping away and the bones/fossils started falling out. you would have thought i had a gaggle of girls in those woods (ahem, well the EDGE of the woods) by all of the squealing and screaming. one was determined that we would all be rich.....the others quickly reminded him this was a secret.

**we collected the bones and hiked back to the location we had parked the vehicle. we took a break and had the silly string fight. AFTER the last can was emptied.....i pulled out MY can. the boys were shocked that i could run and catch them. apparently, they think i am near nursing home admission age. more of that one to come. :)

**as soon as the war was over, i heard one little guy screaming for me. i went to him - 'uh, mrs. shannon, these are NOT real. look here...... "made in china". oops! a very quick reply: well, xxxx you know that there are chinese dinosaurs, don't you." response: ohhhh, you're right". "well, who wrote it then" me: "well, do you think the indians, could have?" "oh, yeah you're right!!" they are REALLLLLLLL. end of story. whew!

**returned to house, played outside until dark. no injuries, thank.you.God.

**birthday cake and presents. no injuries. in case, you're wondering...i'm getting to a point of course. however, as i was getting things prepared for the cake cutting, one sweet little guy wanted to know who that was in a picture on the wall...i explained it was noah & me. response "ohhhhhh........you look so young." well, it wasn't that long ago. response "well, you look 16". if i could press rewind on the next statement out of my mouth....... well how old do you think i am? an avalanche of answers flooded....some more flattering than others... noah finally let the cat out of the bag.... and then...another sweet boy offered "wow!!!!!! you look reallllly good for being soooooooo old." nice. ;)

**after an evening of play, i finally got them somewhat settled down.... finally at 11-ish i pulled all of the stops and told them the first one that fell asleep, i would give cash too the next morning. horrendous of me, i know. well, apparently they were out very quickly, but, not before me. zzzzzzzzz and, immediately this morning when they all (but one) woke up at FIVE-THIRTY they remembered the deal i struck and informed me that noah was the one who had fallen asleep first. well, since he gets all of my $$ anyway, think i'll not pay out much on that one.

**this morning, things were going reallllllllllly, reallllllllly well. i was getting all of the back-packs packed back (that's hard to say) up, sleeping bags folded....things were moving right along....i should have known. we only had an HOUR to go before i shuffled the kids back home. and, in one more round of some 'horseplay', i had a man down. i mean truly down. i've never had to perform neuro-checks in my own home; thankfully, no negative findings. however, there was a clear difference in palpating the area. i wouldn't let him move and then i made that lovely phone call you never want to make...to mom.....i was sick. of course, she was as calm and sweet as always which helped on my end. needless to say, dad came to get him and the party was definitely over. after an angonizing wait to learn what the x-rays of his NECK yielded, we got good news. it was muscular. thank God! i felt worse than horrible about it!

**i need at least another year before i can do that again. maybe two. it may be Chuck E. next year.

**pictures to come