March 5, 2010 - Tempe, Arizona

A little late on this one, but it wasn't exactly a headline news sorta day. The kids & Gena went with their Nana to the Phoenix Zoo, leaving me to complete the assembly of our tax documentation for last year. A huge relief to have that done. Now we just send it off and await the bad news. If I become more motivated, I may have to figure out how to do clergy taxes myself. Fortunately, motivation isn't exactly oozing out of my pores at the moment, so my tax guy is in no danger.

Once everyone was back in the afternoon, the cousins came over with Gena's sister. Two almost-eight-year-old boys, two five-year-old girls, and one almost-four-year-old boy is a handful! I always enjoy roughhousing with the kids. I remember as a child always wanting to roughhouse, but the adults never seemed to want to do it as long as I did. I've yet to find a kid that isn't just waiting for an adult to get down on their level for some fightin' fun. And, it's good exercise trying to keep two almost-eight-year-old boys at bay - each of whom has attached himself to one arm and is trying their best to get my elbows to touch behind my back. In the mean time, their respective five-year-old sisters are experimenting with various neck locks, trying to figure out the sleeper hold, while my almost-four-year-old son stands in front of me and delivers a flurry of blows to my chest and stomach. Sure beats going to the gym!

It's fun when kids get to the age of beginning to strategize their battles, and my son and his cousin were doing plenty of strategizing! My youngest son was doing a great, unprompted job of attempting to yank my arm out from under me whenever I was on all fours. Beautiful to watch - and only mildly painful to participate in. I'm proud of the little thugs. May they continue to grow stronger and smarter in their battle techniques!