Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...

That's what my little boys are made of.

They don't understand other people's lack of excitement when told they have a snake in cage. We had my nephew over yesterday, and things were going great until the snake was mentioned. I had him up on my counter to help get his shoes on, and Drew remembered the snake. He excitedly offered to bring the snake inside so Grayson could see it and Grayson's face went a shade paler. He told Drew that he'd already seen the snake in pictures and that was good enough for him. Drew said, "Oh seriously, you have to see it, he's really fun to hold because he's not slimy at all, just dry and scaly." Grayson began gnawing on his shirt sleeve and pulled his feet up further on my counter and bravely said, "No, it's okay." Drew promptly ran outside to retrieve snake and brought it inside and laid it on my kitchen floor. Grayson peered at it from the safety of the counter and said, "Yeah, Drew. Cool." And then waited until the snake was secured back in cage with lid before getting down. Now that's my kind of guy.

Virginia has it's share of creepy-crawlys and I've pretty much gotten used to the fact that there are ticks, ginormous spiders, black snakes, possums, etc. I'm still not above shrieking like a girl when presented with one of the boys' treasures.

The items that Drew and Finn require for a successful summer:

1. Aquarium
Last year we had 3 painted turtles that we turned loose in the fall. He wrote his name on their shells because he's sure that he'll find them again.

2. Nets
Never, never leave the house without one.

3. Mason jars and lids

4. Live trap
He caught a possum once. When he opened the door to let it go, the possom played dead. So Drew put a rope around it and dragged it to the empty chicken house. He checked on it the next day and saw her taking care of her babies. That was an exciting week.

5. Fishing rod and worms
Nate says that we need to buy stock in nightcrawler companies. Drew thinks we need to start our own. Uncle Grant opened up a whole new bait venue when they couldn't find any worms. He shot a bird and cut up the breast meat for bait. Drew just watched him dreamily, because Uncle Grant is awesome.

6. Cages
My dad built two for them for Christmas, and they've yet to be filled. Their dream is a ferret. I'm a little leery of ferrets because of their smell, but who knows. They've been saving their pennies.

7. Animal food
Anything works, really. Bread, grains, chips, cereal, lunch meat, string cheese, etc.

Looking forward to the next four months of more excitement. Would you like to come over?