Life in the SLO lane

I love that I get to drive a van full of kids to and from school (depending on my rotation of the car pool). There are usually 6 kids in the car at once, which is just enough for them to forget that an adult is in the car. When this happens they feel more inclined to speak freely of the things which weigh on their young minds. Not every day is a blessing sent from heaven, though. Some days go like this...

Setting: The Honda Odyssey. Kate is driving, Briggs and Ty are in the back seat. They are on their way to the school for the second time that day when the following conversation ensues, for the 3,452nd time...

Briggs: Mom... I can't hear the DVD.
Kate: Alright.
Ty: MOM! I CAN'T HEAR IT!
Kate: Alright.
Briggs: No, wait. What movie is this? Have we seen this one?
Kate: I don't know, Briggs.
Ty: DIS IS DA MUPPET SHOW! I DON'T WANT DAT ONE!
Briggs: Mom! What movie is this?
Kate: The Muppet Show.
Briggs: I know. Which one is this?
Kate: I don't know, Briggs. Just wait and see.
Ty: WHICH ONE IS DIS?
Kate: I don't know, just wait and see.
Briggs and Ty: (at least 24 times...) PRESS PLAY (meaning the menu is showing and I should now press play.)
Kate: ok
Briggs and Ty: (twice as loud and at least 48 times...) PRESS PLAY! (because the reaction of my arm and the DVD player was not fast enough for them)
Briggs: Aww! commercials! I wish we could skip the commercials. Mom can you skip it?
Ty: NO, MOM! DON'T SKIP IT! I DON'T WANT YOU TO SKIP IT! I WANT TO SEE IT!
Briggs: No, Ty! we just saw this! Mom can you skip it?
Kate: (reaching up and turning the power OFF on the entire noise making system and shutting the DVD screen.) OK. That's enough. We are not watching a movie. I'm not here to take orders. I may be here to be your chauffeur, but I'm not your personal lackey (so what if they don't know what "lackey" means! They get my point.)

anyway...
Back to Blessings from Heaven.

We live 300 miles centrally located from nowhere, so in this beautiful SLO town, we get to drive past cow pastures and other variations of farms everyday on the way to school. You can only imagine the types of animal husbandry questions that fly my way (Is that a Llama? I think that's a llama. No. That's not a llama. It's an alpaca. What's an alpaca? It's like a llama...)

Sooo...
Today Ash exclaimed (because she exclaims everything) "Look! I see a baby cow standing with it's back legs on it's mom's b-u-t-t!"
"Where?" everyone else shouts.
"Wait. B-u-t?" (Briggs wants to make sure he is caught up on what is going on.)
"No not b-u-t. That's 'but', like 'but why can't we go?' B-u-t-t is like..." (mumbles something cause she's shy like that.)
"Oh! (giggles) B-u-t-t!" Briggs giggles some more.
Meanwhile, Ashlynn is still prattling on about the cow with it's hind legs on the other cows b-u-t-t.
It's spring time. I'm so glad they are all hung up on their homophones and not what was going on in that grassy field between those two animals...