My sister’s family and my parents came to visit recently; it was a fabulous visit. We hung-out, shot some pool, made smores, went for a hike/bike ride, and rented a pontoon boat for a day on the lake. Overall, I was highly impressed by the children’s behavior because all schedules were out the window: bedtimes were “super-late” and the kiddos always rose early. I guess that’s what happens when they all share one huge floor bed!

The first highlight of the visit was when my nephew lost a tooth. We were sitting around the table enjoying our dinner. My nephew had just taken a bite from his corn on the cob when his mom said, “M. it looks like your tooth is bleeding.”
“hmm…,” said M. as he grabbed a napkin to staunch the bleeding.
“Wow, it’s really bleeding,” Pam continued, I’m sure your going to loose that tooth soon.”
I squinted across the table to get a better look at the bleeding tooth and then erupted in a laughing, “Tooth? What tooth? I don’t see a tooth! M. is there a tooth there?”
Between fits of laughter M. confirmed that the tooth was indeed missing.
“Well, is it stuck in your corn?” we asked.
“No.”
“Is it on your plate? On the floor?”
All questions received a giggling, “NO!” from M.
Then we all started to laugh hysterically once we realized HE SWALLOWED HIS TOOTH! What a conundrum for an 8 year old! How can the tooth fairy give you money if you don’t have a tooth to hide under your pillow?! We quickly came to a consensus that the best course of action would be for M. to write a note to the tooth fairy because she probably understands accidents happen. The note worked and M. received his money, and because all the kiddos were sleeping together, the tooth fairy left a little something for everyone. Isn’t she the sweetest?

Flash forward a few days. Apparently my son thought M.’s note worked so well, he decided he would be able to trick the tooth fairy with a note of his own. So before going to bed he sat down and wrote the following note to see if he could, “trick the tooth fairy.”

He’s quite the tricky fellow, isn’t he? Not only did he leave this note, but he also left the tooth fairy a math problem. Apparently he wants to make sure she can do math as well as collect teeth. Here’s the math problem…it’s a tricky one…

Much to the boys’ dismay the tooth fairy did not fall for the ruse, but the parents had a good chuckle.

Here are a few pics from the visit. Thanks to my sister for sharing her photographs!

First up – time for some smores!

My favorite outing during our visit was the pontoon boat. Unfortunately, my youngest did NOT want to get on the boat, he doesn’t like bodies of water, so Paul had to carry him on board kicking and screaming.  After a few minutes on the water, however, he settled down and began to enjoy the day. We drove around, swam, ate, caught some zs and got a little lost on the way back. It was a gorgeous day:

The visit flew by and ended all too quickly, but I look forward to seeing everyone again soon!