Just because you can doesn't mean that you should....

I have spent the entire day working on getting letters out to 200 children who will attend a summer camp run by one of the professors I work for....and I don't know that I am getting any extra compensation for this overtime.....
So here is a story from yesterday (since I was only able to vaguely pay attention to my children today).
One of the items the boys got for their birthday was the Fisher Price Digital Camera approved for 3+. Our baby-sitter, Ben, gave it to them. It really is pretty neat because it has a lot of memory, rubber around all corners and edges, and minimal buttons (on/off, scroll forward or back, delete, and the one to take a picture). It uses AA batteries, a screen at the back, or you can look through the "eye" parts that are like binoculars. I haven't had a chance to actually look at the pictures the boys have taken so far...although I am reasonably sure there are several pictures of the floor.
Well, after they opened it Ben said something about how you could throw it down the steps and it wasn't supposed to hurt the camera.
Yesterday morning before breakfast, Andy picked up the camera, opened the door to the basement, and while I watched in horror he lobbed the camera down the steps.
Mommy: Andy! Why did you do that!
Andy: Ben said I could.

So now we are working on the concept of "even if you could it doesn't mean that you should."

Strikers Unite!

Remember that our baby-sitter is a theater major...so tons of creativity...way more than waiting tables calls for (though it has done wonders for our imaginary play around here...). He gets the kids outside pretty regularly if it is nice and sometimes we find interesting chalk drawings. I missed the opportunity to take pictures of the last one. Jim asked me if Ben had had problems the previous day because there was a big "send help" written on the pavement and there were chalk body outlines of Ben and all the children. If you can't read this one enlarge it....

Knocked out

We are recovering in many ways around here. Monday Jim twisted his ankle and Tuesday we finally took down our baby-sitter, Ben. After a year and a half (well…during the school year, year and a half) of baby-sitting for us he finally had to say he was sick enough he couldn’t keep up with the kids. So if my posts seem short it is because I haven’t had a minute to stop and actually write anything. Hopefully Ben will be back up and running at full capacity shortly. When he called me to see if we could cut the day short I came home and then sent him off with a bottle of Nyquil a bottle some other medicine and instructions to sleep. Jim’s ankle is definitely recovering and he is almost back to full capacity also.
Now we just need the weather to warm up so that everyone can get well and the kids can go outside to play.