Santa likes ice cream??

A few weeks ago, I did two things. I joined Absolute Write at http://www.absolutewrite.com/ and I went to the local ice cream place with my family.

At Absolute Write, I joined a blog chain and it's my turn. You can see the one before me here: http://www.southasiafair.com/2008/08/spam-mails-are-the-funniest/ about spam and the one after me here: http://returnengagement.blogspot.com/ Everyone's been writing about "funny events and things" for the chain, so I came up with this. If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you know I normally only write about things that my kids have done. This time is no different.

"Who wants ice cream?" I asked my children.

"Me!" Andrew and Lukas said in unison.

"Me!" Lily said, delayed. I smiled at her. She always wanted to be like her brothers. She pushed her hair out of her face again and ran for her stroller.

Outside, Shaun and I walked together with Lily in one stroller, our neighbor girl Brenna in another, and the boys on their bikes in front of us. The walk was short and pleasant and we arrived at the ice cream shop in no time.

Inside, we went through the usual chaos of attempting to get an order from everyone. Andrew and Lukas wanted stuffed snowballs (italian ice with ice cream, very good), Brenna wanted a cone with sprinkles, and Lily wanted her usual mixed in a dish with sprinkles and a cherry. As Shaun moved to the counter to order, Andrew pointed outside.

"Look! It's Santa Claus!" he cried. He looked at Lukas who started to giggle.

"Yeah! It's Santa!" Lukas agreed.

Lily and Brenna joined in the giggling. It was getting louder and louder in the small room and "Santa" was approaching the front door. I didn't want him to hear what was going on inside. He'd be insulted.

"Shh! Boys! Stop it!" I hissed.

"Ho ho ho!" Andrew said, ignoring me.

"I didn't know Santa liked ice cream!" Lukas shouted and burst out laughing again. He and Andrew fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

"Boys! Enough!" I said louder. "Santa's" hand was on the door. The man couldn't hear this. I was getting desperate.

Shaun walked over with ice cream for the boys and frowned. "Enough guys. Eat your ice cream."

That's all it took. One look from Shaun and instructions to stop and they were sitting at the table as though nothing ever happened. I sat down too and breathed a sigh of relief as "Santa" walked through the door with "Mrs. Claus." She didn't look the way anyone expected. She was quite thin and wore no red.

Lily chose that moment to break into song. "Santa, Santa, Santa," she sang loudly.

The boys laughed again, ice cream dripping from their chins. Brenna joined in the song too.

"Santa, Santa, Santa," they sang laughing.

"Santa" didn't turn around. He didn't stay long either.

"Girls," I whispered. "Stop, that's not nice."

After a little more persuasion and a lot of ice cream, the girls did stop but the damage was done. "Santa" had already heard the song. Hopefully, he was used to it and understood. I felt terrible but there would be no apology. The man disappeared too fast.

Who knew that Santa liked to eat ice cream in the summer?

Rainbows

Last Wednesday was beautiful. The sun was shining and bright in the sky, the kids played out back with their toys.

And then it rained. Hard. For ten minutes. I'm not joking. It only rained for a couple of minutes, but it was enough.

When the sun started peeking out from behind the clouds again, the combination of light and water created the most complete rainbow I'd ever seen. It was big and long, deep and bright, and the most magnificent reminder of God's existence.

Fart Jokes

We make jokes about farts in our house far too often. Lukas will run to his father, who lays unaware on the couch watching the Olympics, and leave a loud fart. He giggles as Shaun pushes him off yelling, “Aw, Lukas! Why would you do that?” Though he yells, Shaun also tries to hide his own look of amusement at the situation.

Last night, another fart joke was made. This one was completely inappropriate for stranger’s ears and so I said, “None of you are to repeat that outside of this house.”

Eight-year-old Andrew got a confused look on his face and very smartly said, “Who do you think would be dumb enough to repeat that?”

Shaun and I smiled at each other and each pointed to one of the two boys. Lily sat on my lap at the time and took in all that was happening. After Andrew showed a proper amount of shock at the accusation, Lily pointed her little finger at ME!

“Who are you pointing at?” I asked her, surprised.

Maybe the youngest among us is also the smartest among us.