Gotcha!

It's Yali's – somehow already – 11th “Gotcha! Day”... kids tumbling back on our bed... Yali reenacting full Harry Potter battle scenes for our early morning benefit on the bed covers beneath the spinning ceiling fan... he then leaves to check on his snake... “MOM! IT'S ALMOST SHEDDING SEASON! HIS EYES ARE TURNING BLUE!”...

It's been a lot of time indoors from the heat so we leave a little after nine o'clock for Castlewood before it really digs in for the day...

The whole drive there Yali makes his rubber hand puppets practice cartoon-screaming...

...which makes the quiet of the creek feel even more quiet when we arrive and the kids get busy splashing down the stony bank... there are more hand-tooled stone pieces (some good ones)... velvety black Ebony jewelwing dragonflies dancing in groups near the wooded bank... trains chugging down the creek... a box turtle discovery... the kids name him “Jeff” and carry him around for awhile to various locations of play... Jeff doesn't seem to mind...

Pause for fish and potatoes and ice cream at the local McD's before scooting home in a heat index already over 100...

Back home Puck discusses things like the exothermic reaction “fire” smoldering in the garbage dump north of us near radioactive waste before I drop him off at work for five hours...

And Yali asks me to sit outside with him while he jumps on the trampoline in costume with skeleton mask and face paint before we pick up Mellow Mushroom for his celebration dinner...

Skip ahead to nine o'clock that night driving Patience home from the studio where we spend most of that time discussing how to do the breaststroke followed by a reenactment of Puccini's “Nessun dorma” which makes Patience laugh... “We should have more conversations like this!”...