We had to put our dog to sleep.  I told both boys about her having to go to heaven, and how she could chase all the squirrels she wanted in heaven, and can play with our old dog Daisy who is up there. They were sad at first, but then we started joking about the never ending cookie supply in heaven, and they laughed some. The technical detail follow up question from the 7 year old got me. Daniel:"Mom, so where is her skeleton?" Thinking of how to describe cremation to a scientifically curious but tender soul 7 year old. Me:"Well Daniel her skeleton went through something call cremation. They have a special box they put it in, that heats the skeleton up very high, to the point it tuns into a powder. Then they take that powder and use it to fertilize the ground to plant trees." 7 year old, "Oh, OK mommy, that's neat." Whew... it was an acceptable answer.

The 5 year old, procrastinating in eating his grilled cheese sandwich. He had already eaten everything else on his plate. He picks up one of the halves of his sandwich and says "Look, this is an isosceles triangle!". I tell him, "Yes Michael, that is an isosceles triangle, it has two equal sides. Now what shape is it if you take a bite out of it?" He takes a bite, looks at his bite mark and says "A half of circle!" Me:"You are right your bite mark is a half of a circle, now eat the rest of your sandwich kid!"

I was giving the boys a bath last night and they have this phrase/gesture combination where they yell 'Ta-Da!' and open their arms out wide. Not sure where it came from (think the Croods sloth). They were in the tub alternating 'Ta-Da!' yells, and opening their arms. Of course in the tub this resulted in water going everywhere and boys accidentally hitting each other with the arms gesture. So I say "Hey guys, that's it, no more 'Ta-Da!' in the tub!". Michael looks me in the eyes and does the arm gesture and yells 'La-La!". I busted out laughing - parental authority lost in the situation. Technically he did not do the 'Ta-Da!', by switching it up to 'La-La!', the kid won this round on a technicality resulting in huge laughter from all three of us.

7 year old, 5 year old, and I were eating lunch together and the 7 year old asked me "Mommy what is the darkest color?" Me:"I think it is black" Him:"But what shade of black?" Me:"Does black have multiple shades?" Him:"Well, when I color with a black crayon, I can keep coloring over something I have completely colored and it still seems to get darker" Me:"Ah, yes crayons do not cover completely in a single layer, there are spots of color and spots of blank in each layer, so as you color more layers on tops, each one will cover more of the original blank spots to get darker and darker. Now if you colored with a black marker, you would cover it up in a single layer at once" Him:"So mom even when you color layer after layer with a black crayon you will never cover up all the blank spots completely, well you might cover to the point the human eye sees it as covered, but if you looked under a microscope you would see there are still spots blank all the way down to the paper, right mom?" Me:"Yes, that is correct, great thinking about the layers of spot coverage, now please finish your taco".

Made up a bedtime story for the boys tonight.  Here is the full version, lengthy, but fun.  Once upon a time there were two little boys named Daniel and Michael, and they were brothers and the best of friends.  On this adventure the boys were traveling through Mathmagical Land, where they have to solve math riddles from creatures for safe passage to get to the treasure chest with 1,000 gold pieces.  The boys went to the first level of the magical land, and approached a moat that had what types of enemies in it?  Daniel:”A deadly sea snake”  Michael:”A man eating shark!”  Ok, the deadly sea snake approached Daniel and said, ‘Daniel I will eat you in a single slithery swallow, unless you can answer me this riddle… what is 5x5?  Daniel:”25!”  Deadly Sea Snake:”Ohhhh, you got me *falls back into water*” The man eating shark jumps up and says ‘not so fast… Michael I will chomp you up in one bite unless you can answer me this… what is 3 plus 3?’  Micahel:”6!”  Man Eating Shark:”Ahhh! *splash*”  The boys had defeated level one of mathmagical land and the gate dropped down for them to safely travel across the moat.  They kept traveling until they reached a gigantic fire mountain with a lava pit in their path, and two enemies awaited them.  What were the enemies?  Michael:”A super fire dragon!”  Daniel:”The bluest, hottest flame!”  The super fire dragon approached Michael and spread his wings and said with his fiery breathe” Michael I will use my fire breath to crisp you unless you can answer me this riddle… what is 4 plus 3?”  Michael: *counts on fingers* ”7!”  Super Fire Dragon:”Arrgghhh *falls into bluest hottest flame and is disintegrated*  Then the bluest hottest flame began to move and swirled up to form a face in front of the boys, and that flame face said “Daniel… I will catch you in my flame unless you can answer me this riddle… what is 8 times 3?”   Daniel:”Hmmm, 8 times 2 is sixteen…*serious face* …wait I can add 8 more to that, ok 8 times three is 24!”  *The blue flame dissolved away into the lava pit, and a path of solidified lava earth appeared before them.  The defeated level 2.  Only 1 level remains in their mathmagic land challenge.  The forest level.  The boys walked through the forest, and we stopped in their tracks by their final two enemies, who were they?”  Michael:”A normal dragon”  Daniel:”An Element Dragon, who is made up of all the elements!”  The normal dragon approached Michael and said, ‘Michael, I will catch you and fly you to my cave unless you answer me this riddle… what is 7 plus 2?”  Michael counts on his fingers, looks up “9, I beat you dragon!”  The element dragon lands in front of Daniel and opens his mouth, and out sprays a whole rainbow of elemental flames, yellow sodium, red lithium, green boron, and white magnesium.  The elemental dragon says “Daniel I will dissolve you to carbon unless you can answer this riddle… tell me all the combinations of the following multiplication and division fact family: 3, 6, and 18”  Daniel smiles and says “3 times 6 is 18, 6 times 3 is 18, 18 divided by 3 is 6, and 18 divided by 6 is 3!”  The elemental dragon dissolved into a pile of elements.  The boys had defeated level 3, and the magical chest of 1,000 gold pieces appeared before them.  But they looked down and there was a pattern combination lock on the chest.  The first row said ‘Michael’ and the second row said ‘Daniel’  Michael had to finish his combination first, the pattern was batman, spiderman, gold, batman, spiderman, gold, batman, and a blank.  Michael what goes in the blank?  Michael:”Spiderman!”  The first latch clicked open.  Daniels pattern lock was “star, gold, star, star, gold, star, star, star, gold, star, star, star, and a blank…Daniel what do we enter to unlock the chest?”  Daniel “A star!”  The chest popped open, and the boys had their treasure!

The 5 year old was pushing a four year old girl on the merry go round today at the park. He introduced himself this way "Hi, my name is Michael, what's your name?". Girl:'Jessie' Michael:"Jessie, nice to meet you, What did you have for breakfast today Jessie?". Jessie:'oatmeal'. Michael:"Oatmeal nice, Jessie I had Bacon! Now get on, I'll push you". Jessie's mom and I burst out laughing. His delivery of the word 'bacon' was in a true ladies man style. Thirteen years from now this little ladies man may be unstoppable... good to know with all the math and science skills emphasis this little man's social skills are also in full stride.

I was making up a bedtime story for the boys tonight. They were exploring the mountains in it and got to each create two weapons out of nature around them. Michael created 'moose poop' and a 'fart gun', both technically natural; Daniel created 'a found abandon metal sword which I sharpened using rocks' and 'a hand-made spear, and by hand made mom I mean I used a wood branch that was very cylindrical, and sharpened a rock for the end of the spear, and then attached the rock tip to the cylindrical piece of wood using vines I found by wrapping the vines around both the rock and the cylinder". OK, thanks for the detailed description of your natural weapons Daniel, now onto fighting bridge trolls in the story....