Boys, Knives and Free Produce

What is it about boys and knives? Whatever the answer is to that question, I believe it is probably the same answer to: what is it about boys and guns? They love them and they instinctively know how to use them. They may not instinctively know how to SAFELY use them, which is why they need supervision, guidance and instruction in handling them properly.

We recently took a vacation to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. We went with my parents and it was a great time. That area is beautiful once you get past all the hoopla and merchandise for sale. Naturally a child wants a souvenir to take home and naturally, the boys wanted knives. Knives they got, with a wooden case and their name engraved on the side. Our 5-year-old still can not figure out how his name got on the side of that knife. He exclaims to everyone, "Look! It has my name on it and I don't know how it got there, I just found it like that!" I decided to let the magical mystery remain intact, so please don't tell him that there is a machine in China somewhere, stamping out children's names by the millions on all kinds of trinkets. Those knives have been in their pockets ever since.

A couple of days after returning from vacation, we were alerted to free pumpkins that were about to be brush hogged for the winter. Well, if you know me, I'm a sucker for wholesome produce and an even bigger one if it is FREE! The children and I piled into the truck, loaded the Radio Flyer wagon in the back and headed toward the 'ole pumpkin patch.

See that box? That is one of those boxes you see at Sam's and Costco loaded up with watermelons. THAT is our haul of pumpkins! I could have brought home twice that many, but it was lunchtime and I knew that at any minute I could have really grumpy children on my hands.

Here are the boys taking advantage of an opportunity to cut their fingers off use their new knives.

If we are missing a few digits the next time you see us, you'll know why.