There are lots of good reasons people invented shoes...

Like to keep your toes warm in winter.  And because walking a long distance is rough on bare feet.  And because stepping on sharp things hurts. 

Of course, none of those seemed to apply late this morning as I was attempting to herd five children outside.  (We were babysitting.)  I opened up our back door and three of the kids stampeded outside, leaving just Katie to scoop up and another little girl who needed help with her sandals.  Our backyard is pretty boring and rather than deal with the hassle of putting on a pair of shoes I figured I'd just barefoot it.  Since it's supposed to be in the 90's today, I was even consciously looking forward to feeling the warm grass on my toes.

With one last tug on a tiny sandal buckle, I turned around and stepped out of the house backwards so I could help guide our little visitor out the door.  And instead of landing on toasty planks of patio wood how I expected, something went

squish.

A mouse.  A warm, dead, fuzzy, ant-covered, already decomposing-in-the-heat, mouse.  A mouse that popped and started oozing something green.  

After a little hollaring at the kids to stay away (as soon as I squealed they all came running and at least one sandal-clad foot accidentally further-flattened our unfortunate rodent corpse) and a quick run to the garage for a shovel, the sad little critter (well...what was left...it kind of fell apart a little in transit...) was laid to rest in one of our bushes.  

I think our day can only go up from here.  :) 

Bath-time Gone Wrong. Very Wrong.

We've had some problems with Katie in the bath recently, so really I shouldn't have been surprised.  I even considered not putting Katie in until after the other girls had finished, but Bryan's been out of town the past couple of days and in favor of keeping things moving steadily towards bedtime I decided to be optimistic and put all three of them in together.

It didn't take long for things to go downhill.  The big girls were just starting to pour water back and forth using the fun tea set Grandma sent for Amber's birthday when I looked down at Katie and saw a brown cloud literally swelling around her in the water.

After so many recent accidents, the whole thing has become rather obnoxiously routine.  More annoyed than panicked I decided to evacuate Robyn and Amber first since Katie looked like she  might still be working on something.  In a matter of moments the big girls were hefted out of the tub, the toy dishes were confiscated, and two wet naked toddlers were shooed to the shower in our bathroom where I promised I would come help them as soon as I took care of Katie.

I then turned my head back to Katie...just in time to see her put SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT A TOOTSIE ROLL between her lips.

Gag. Gag. Double-gag.  Gagging again just writing this.

I suppose it could be worse though.  I mean, at least it was fresh and recently rinsed...right?

Katie, our resident mischievous monkey, pulling out nearly all 80 diaper wipes from a  brand new package last night.