The Art of Nurturing Beasts-Summer Time

I often wonder if being a mother of boys is a feat God reserves for the former wild things...those of us who put our own parents through hell. I look at mothers with only girls, and they don't seem frazzled or fazed in their child-rearing (that is, until hormones set in and attitudes flare)... I've often pondered God's plan in giving me boys and wondered if it was His attempt to calm me and snap me out of my selfish ambitions; a pay-back 10-fold for all the anxiety attacks and nervous break-downs I provoked in my youth; maybe I'll give her a few wild things of her own to keep her on track and too busy to be wild herself (God spoke)..."character building" lessons I suppose.
When I became a mother of boys, my days of me time were replaced with trips to the E.R. for bumps, bruises, broken bones, and staples in the head; flatulence in place of fresh-air; and a house that never stayed clean for too long. Though I love my little beasts, they sure can wear me out!
Well, summer is here and the wild things of my household have reserved excessive amounts of energy and boyishness for their now stay-at-home mother. Knowing that this crew is from my blood-line, I had to have a plan to keep them in check for the summer; keep them occupied so they couldn't join forces with the neighborhoodlums & start their own terrorist organization. I'm determined to keep my crew's minds at work with good summer enrichment and I've invited some of the kids from my school to join...
These are the Summer adventures of the 4ACE Crew thus-far as the art of nurturing beasts continues: Aside from plenty of "Train-your-brain" school sessions at The Compound, we've included daily excursions, venturing out to explore the sights of summer...

Every day after school we are fish in water, spending hours at Auntie Jodi's pool...Atticus the Spartacus Legitamus has finally done away with the floaties and joined the league of big kids who can swim on their own...my princess mouse-face daughter, enjoys bossing the boys around with attempted drownings while hanging on their necks if they don't comply. 

Last week, we took a field-trip to the stables to learn about different horses.
While exploring the grounds, we managed to avoid contracting rabies while saving a drowning squirrel from a horse's trough... 

         We scooped the little rascal out with a rake and set him free to roam. While the girls were intrigued by the pretty ponies, the boys seemed more interested in finding a rattle snake and the large fountain of urine flowing from CZAR the black and brown  stallion. After almost getting stomped by the brown snorting/grunting horse that seemed angered by the loudness of the excited bunch of hooligans, we decided to leave the horses alone and head over to the stream to fish for critters. At the park, even the girls got their feet wet and joined the fun.

Atticus and His Crawfish

 Spartacus waded through the mucky water and eventually found an unpleasant surprise in his mason jar...I sat watching him from the hill as he threw his jar to the ground and darted up the hill screaming at the top of his lungs.

                  
Apparently, he thought he had scooped up a scorpion and freaked out in fear. When I went to see what all the fuss was about, I found this little guy staring at me. Spartacus calmed down when I explained what it was... Then fear turned into pride, having fished out this mini-lobster and cousin to the cockroach, he thought it would be a good idea to take him home as a gourmet offering for dad. Dad wasn't into the idea despite being a lover of anything edible so we let him go in the sewer...
Back at the house, Keith the Desert Tortoise continues to roam the backyard as he watches the chaos that ensues each day...dodging Nerf-missiles and bullets, being tripped over by Ninjas, and occasionally getting squirt in the face by a water blaster or balloon. Like the husband, he keeps his cool. Recently, he became a Ninja-Turtle for the day as we held a training event for the all the Ninjas we know. It was a packed house as the stealth fighters showed up to the top-secret event, but nothing out of the ordinary for the 4ACE Crew.

  I led my little Ninjas in some drills, then they demonstrated the ways of the warrior with some kicks and hiyahs . I have gangster-ninja skills myself, so of course I had to rep for the most fierce variety of ninjas, the Multi-tasking Momma types.

* Though we appear to be some-what conservative, the beasts often double as Ninjas when the sun sets...The neighbors would never know that behind the confines of our fence rests the ninja training grounds for the miniature people in suburbia.

   
  So the adventures continue as I work to keep my crew engaged and entertained. Hopefully we will keep our bones in-tact and our shoes off in the house so momma ninja doesn't have to jump-kick-chop/drop any mini-ninja butt...to be continued...

A Kill-Bill Kinda Crew, not to be messed with.