The Ho Chi Minh Trail- Little Boy Style

Oh do I love this weather! I am so happy that I am not drenched in sweat when I walk the 50 feet to my car after work. I guess it is just part of living in the deep south and I'll never leave so I shouldn't complain but....the crisp days of October make the sticky days of August seem so far away! So Noah, Wil, Baby Gabey and I have really been taking advantage of the fact that we can no longer fry up an egg in the driveway and are spending quite a bit of time outside. Saturday the boys went outside to play next door on the neighbor's playset (shout out Tina) because well let's face it we don't have one. (You may be asking why we do not have a swing-set since we have so many little boys...it is such a great way to have big muscle movements and the back and forth motion of swinging is so centering...It would be great for the boys. Please refer to my previous post Lessons in Little Boys especially the 9th and 10th items down. Not even a swing set is safe in my yard) Anyway when I went out 10 minutes later to check on them all I saw was head to toe dirt! Yes, they were digging a hole underneath the swing. I freaked out and sent them home because after all destroying other people's property is not one of my favorite things for my children to do. (They however think it is great fun and will always engage in that sort of activity if the situation presents itself) We went into my backyard and spent an hour cleaning up the Sanford and Son junk pile that had somehow appeared in the middle of the yard. I so wish I had a before picture. We are talking snake habitat, health hazard, could end up on an episode of Extreme Hoarders junk pile. I am told it was a fort. I'll take their word for. Noah and Wil were not happy about cleaning it up but it had to go because Gabey Baby may have gone in and never come out. I told them that I was sure they could think of something else to do while they were outside. I should have known.

Gabe and I went into to take a nap (because that's what they say...Always sleep when the baby is napping...I just assume by baby they mean toddler) and when we came back outside we saw that, sure enough, the boys had found something to do while they were outside. I needn't have worried. I took a quick video but I am not sure you can get the full effect.

 

That shovel is completely in the ground. The Viet Cong have invaded my back yard and have begun to dig a new set of Cu Chi Tunnels. Why is it when my boys are quiet and not about to kill each other it is probably because they are doing something that-

                                                          A. they are not allowed to do

                                                          B. they don't want us to know about, like standing on the roof with a   bucket of water waiting for an adult to walk out of the door. Yes, that's been done at the Squires' house.

                                                          C. could get them killed.

They worked all day on this hole. They were so excited about it that they invited Jake and Heyward over to help them dig on Sunday. Digging vertically got a little boring for them so they started digging a horizontal tunnel as well. They have a whole plan that includes escape tunnels in case of collapse. Me, being the Mom of the year 2010, saw nothing wrong with this. As a matter of fact I thought it was cute. I told my hubby to go check it out. He came back in and said..."Rachel, they can't go in that tunnel...it could collapse." Well duh...that's why they have escape tunnels. Apparently the Viet Cong knew how to reinforce a tunnel a little better than the Squires boys.

I guess the next big project will be to fill back in the Cu Chi tunnel in my backyard. It involves moving dirt with the opportunity to shove someone in a half filled in hole so I am assuming the boys will be fine with it.. Maybe then they will take up making booby traps. As long as there is an escape tunnel I guess I'll be ok with it.