Boys Will Be Boys

Well Spring has finally sprung here!! Yesterday was simply beautiful so Kevin and the boys took advantage of the weather. After we finished enough school work to keep the truant officers at bay, I let them go outside. Sometimes I just have to pick my battles with the whole outside thing. They have been cooped up in the house because of all the rain and for my own sanity it is best to let them run and scream and ride their bikes outside, as opposed to inside!! Ha-ha.

The neighborhood boys have a habit of gathering in front of our house and that comes with both positive and negative sides. Last summer I gave in to the whole keeping up with the Jones thing and bought the boys a bike ramp. The box should come with a warning saying, "This product is guaranteed to summon every boy in your neighborhood and surrounding areas. This product will also cause otherwise intelligent children to act like complete and utter morons."

Yesterday afternoon John, Jeremy and a whole mob of boys were gathered in the front of our home riding the ramp. There is one older boy, that we don't particularly care for, who comes down our street when school is out. He is in sixth grade but lacks social skills and by his own admission does not have any friends. He plays with the younger boys but he is still older than them and we really don't like his influence. We try to be nice to him because we don't think his home situation is the greatest and he really is very awkward. Because he is here either Kevin or I have to monitor the situation closely. He used to use what we like to call, adult language, but we have since put the kabosh on that!

I was putting Joe down for a nap during the ramp riding and when he was asleep I went outside to check on the kids. This boy had taken the top part off of the ramp to make it longer so he can jump over it instead of ride over it. On this particular occasion I see our neighbor's son and Jeremy getting ready to lie down between the ramp parts while "T" barrels down the hill preparing an Evil Knevel type move! I scream calmly direct them to not do this. I asked Jeremy why he would do that and he said, "T" said it would be fun. Yeah, fun for the person who does not have to have a bicycle surgically removed from their person!

I can pump these kids full of Latin, poetry, good literature and classical music and they will still be lured away by the temptation to lay under a ramp while somebody else jumps over them! I was lamenting to Kevin about this and trying to understand how boys could think danger remotely resembled fun. I told him you would never see my sister and I jumping over each other with our bikes and he simply said, "You're girls!" 'Nough said,honey!!

I will say this, boys do keep it interesting! :-)