Fishing and random wildlife

So Katie and I scored some major Mom Brownie points by taking all (5!) kids fishing...sans menfolk! Thankfully we didn't actually catch anything, but if we had...we surely would have earned Mom of the Year Awards for having to take the slimy things off the hook! As it was, we spent most of the day untangling fishing line, and trying to keep kids from getting hooked by the frequent rogue fishing hook. The girls set up their own photo shoot after they got tired of fishing, and Mackenzie practiced her Violet look (from the Incredibles). At the end of the day, they all waded into the super gross water. I did read the sign--promise--it was not toxic! Fun times!

And these next pics are just a few of the creatures we find around (not inside thank goodness) our house! The praying mantis survived...at least until the kids thought it was fun to fill the cup with wood chips...not sure how he fared after that because I lost track of the cup. The snake is actually dead. So our cat Zoe caught it outside, and the kids were super excited because they wanted to keep it. I was all for it until I realized that it was not moving. You know that scene in Dumb and Dumber with the kid and the bird..."Pretty Bird"??? Well...that was my kids and this snake. No matter what I said, they were certain it was still alive. Finally I gave in and let Blake put it in his frog tank. Later that night, I tossed it in the trash can. Well the next morning I was woken up with a snake in my face, and Blake telling me I killed it. He still tells his friends the snake died from being in the garbage (surely it couldn't have been from the flesh wound inflicted by the menacing claws of our jungle cat). So I am forever to be known as the Snake Killer.