Pesky Neighbors and Incentives

Question: What happened to our back fence?

Here's a hint: There are four culprits. They are all young, mischievous, have lots of hair, and some people consider them to be cute. (No, they are not our daughters!)

There really were four of them. This was last Sunday afternoon. We used to believe that racoons are nocturnal creatures, but around here, they're 24-hour party animals. Maybe it's because of the constant gray skies. Sometimes even I lose my sense of time in this place.





Now on to part two of this post.

Question: What will motivate Lauren to learn to ride a bike?

Answer: A new bike. It's not really "new", but it was new to her. It was a hand-me-down from our friends, from their youngest son, who has outgrown it. I love it when incentives come free! I don't think Lauren knows it's a boy's bike, but I don't think she would care. She was so excited to get a new bike. And it didn't come with training wheels. So Lauren decided it was time to learn to ride. Doug pushed her for about 3 steps and then she was off. He says, "She was ripe." Well, she is almost six years old.




She was so proud of herself. Of course, starting and stopping are the tricky parts, but she can pedal like a champ. And she is anxious to practice some more tomorrow. It will probably be raining, but does that matter? Nope.