Rick has been really wonderful helping out with the kids.  I really appreciated that.  I had planned to some of the heavy lifting on the trips, but work was going stronger than ever.  Rick stepped up and went along to help herd kids.  Thanks, Rick, for all your hard work.  Dad couldn’t have done it without you.

I had discussed with the kids what they would really like for breakfast.  I had mentioned several options.  They latched on to doughnuts pretty quickly.  So it was settled that we were having mini powdered doughnuts.  I figured cereal was an option also.  I sent Rick off to the store for the gems and some more orange juice.  That golden liquid was flying out of the refrigerator pretty fast.

After eating and cleaning up the kitchen and kids, it was time to hit the bangs.  Rick and Rich gathered the necessary fishing rods, bait, and chairs to head down to the river banks.  Bel was anxious to get started.  She had dreams of catching the biggest fish and the most number of fish.  She is a dedicated fishergirl.  That’s her word and not mine.  Cute, though.

Rich set up the rod holders into the sand for Sophia and Cael.  They would start fishing, but just ended up collecting rocks, digging in the sand, and hanging out in the grass.  Rick was tending the lines, even though he had no license.  Once, Cael’s rod bent down and everyone yelled for him to grab the pole.  But why?  Rick reeled it in and landed the fish.  Cael did get credit.  There were a total of two for him that day.  Sophia caught her two the same way.  Thanks, Rick, for being the hand to bring them in.

Now Bel is a different story.  She is dedicated to her craft.  She casts her line out and carefully plays the line.  She isn’t baiting the hook, but Rich figures she can learn that next year.  She will touch the worm, which is more than most girls will do.  Bel caught four more fish.  One of them turned out to be a good sized catfish.

Rich was able to do a little fishing for himself since Rick was there to help.  He caught a couple of decent sized carp.  By decent, I mean they were probably 10 inches or more.  He said he lost of a lot of bait as they played with the line.  The carp are crafty.  They make you work hard to get and then fight you all the way to shore.  It’s like deep sea fishing, but from the river bank.

Rick brought Sophia and Cael back early.  They had had enough fishing for one day.  Once it gets hard to keep track of them and keep them out of the water, it’s usually a good sign to leave.  It meant I could take them over and Rick was free to go about his business again.

We turned on a show and settled into the couch.  Pretty soon, Sophia comes in to tell me that Cael isn’t sharing the cough.  I have two couches in my living room.  There is a full sized couch that makes a queen-sized bed.  The other couch is simple loveseat.  Cael is stretched out on the full sized couch and is leaving about 2 feet unused at the end.  I’m not sure what the issue really was.  Probably just that he told Sophia she couldn’t sit there.  I pointed out that the loveseat was all hers.  In a few minutes, they were sitting amicably on the big couch again.

Pretty soon, there are swatting noises.  The kids have found the flyswatters and chasing the flies.  For the last week or so, we’ve had this fly infestation.  We’ve looked for all kinds of causes.  We might have it narrowed down to new dirt that was put down over the old driveway and the backyard.  We are assuming the dirt came from local farm area.  This increasing the possibility for eggs and larva.  We’ll see if the infestation goes down as the dirt rests and there is no fertilizer on it.

In the meantime, the kids have learned to correctly swat a fly and chase them around the house.  They stand on my couch and swat them in the front window.  They stand at the doors going to the deck.  They have even been down in the basement trying to become giant slayers.  I have three normal sized flyswatters.  Rick bough an extra large flyswatter at the Dollar Tree the other day.  It works, but it sure can take out a lot of stuff on the way down.  It’s almost bigger than Cael, but he wields it very well.  My giant slayer with a giant swatter.

Yesterday, the kids saw the boxes of Mac n Cheese in the cupboard.  Ever since then, they’ve been planning to have that for lunch today.  I heard it this morning and they reminded me again when they returned from fishing.  I guess I didn’t have think about what to have for lunch.  Rich requested spam to go with it.  Turns out, the kids liked spam too.  Is it in the genes somewhere to like certain things? After eating, I had them scrape their plates and get ready to run the dishwasher.  It’s always easier to get kids to do work for you when you aren’t their parents.

Unfortunately, I still had a lot of work to get done for a delivery.  I was staying behind for the next adventure.  Rick was enlisted again to help Rich take the kids to the Volo Auto Museum.  I made sure the cameras were all empty and they took off.

Everyone came happily tramping back into the house after their adventure.  Bel came to show me the pictures she had taken.  Most of them were of Cael.  He wasn’t smiling in most of the photos.  It liked she had caught Cael talking in most of the photos.  They were cute.  Apparently, Bel was telling him to say things, but then complained because he’s mouth was open.

The girls liked all of the pinks cars.  Sophia liked the pink Mustang and Bel liked the pink and white ’56 Chevy.  Rich says that Cael really liked the hot rods.  Another gene slipping in there?

We had a little bit of time before dinner was scheduled.  The kids and I decided to check out the beach.  I figured the water would be chilly from the colder evenings, but we could use the buckets, shovels, rake, and forms to play in the sand.  The walk down to the beach is a little long.  I thought the kids would make knowing what was at the end.  They did wonderful.  They talked my ear off the whole way.

Sophia asked when they were going to their Mom and Dad.  I explained the plan one more time.  She matter of factly stated that she wasn’t ready to go yet.  Wow, I did a good job.  They like being at my house.  At least for now.  I’m sure that would wear off given time.

At the beach, there was a huge mound of sand that had been dumped at the top of the beach.  Apparently, they were getting ready to replenish the beach.  The girls could start at the top and run down the mound and hit the water.  It looked dangerous for a bad fall, but was really fun for them.  I let them make a couple of runs before stopping the activity.  Cael was too small to enjoy the effect, but he did try once.

The water turned out to be very, very warm.  That meant that the kids just wanted to hang out in the water and not really play on the beach.  I hadn’t planned to be in the water, so I had no water wings or other flotation devices.  They hung out in the shallows and seemed very happy.  We were there swimming around for about half an hour.  I noticed the Bel’s bottom lip was starting to quiver.  It was time to go.  We made the long walk back without incident.

The girls ran most of the way back to the house.  Cael and I brought up the rear.  As we walked by the neighbor’s house, Brad and his friends waved from the front porch.  They were smiling at me for some reason.  It might have been the little guy trailing behind me talking about the beach in a very loud voice.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Rich had dinner underway.  Bel had requested quesadillas for dinner.  We also had the fixings for tacos since Rich and Rick didn’t really want quesadillas.  Sophia and Cael decided on the tacos as well.  It didn’t matter since they generally used the same ingredients.

With dinner cleared away, we settled in for a little bit.  But that set of words kept coming up.  Ice cream.  After half an hour, it was time to pack up the kids and head over to Happy Jack’s for that stuff they kept craving.  Believe it or not, all three of the kids fell asleep on the way over.  With some difficulty, we got them to wake up and go inside for ice cream.  Bel and Cael got Blue Moon.  Sophia went for the Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk Yogurt.  Rich got a chocolate malt.  Unfortunately, I just didn’t feel up to anything.  That’s fine though.

Since the kids had been in the lake, we really had to take baths again.  You can’t leave that stuff on you for too long.  After we turned from Happy Jack’s, Bel got in the shower.  Then I put Cael into the tub.  After that, Sophia took a bath.  It was a lot less frantic than the previous night and I think my bathroom was drier also.  Kids love water.

Once baths were done and jammies were donned, it was time to find a movie.  We began scouring Netflix for something appropriate for little eyes and ears.  Bel wanted movies rated for older kids, but we had to keep this innocent.  We agreed upon 101 Dalmatian (the live version).  Turns out that the kids hadn’t seen this version.  I love Jeff Daniels, Glenn Close, and Hugh Laurie in this one.  Popcorn was offered and accepted, much to Sascha’s happiness.  She loves to hear popcorn in the microwave and waits to catch any that falls or is tossed her way.

Dad and Mom called halfway into the movie.  The kids were filling them in on all the details of the day.  Then it was back to the movie.  The sugar buzz from the ice cream made sure that everyone stayed awake tonight.  Then it finally time to shut out the lights and snuggle down in our beds.  That’s all of us and not just the kids.

Tomorrow would be the final day of hostage negotiations.