Easter Walk

I decided to take the kids for a short walk following Easter dinner.  Along the way, Norah stumbled upon a gold mine.  She has a sharp eye and continually brings me what she refers to as "seashells" or "a snail collection" from the backyard, which are actually empty snail shells.  She keeps a little collection of them in an old empty clay pot in the garden.  As we were walking Norah noticed a shell, but was surprised to find this one inhabited.  She looked around and noticed dozens of them, probably over 200; more than I had ever seen in one place.  She sat down on a little wall and carefully collected handfuls of them with Justin and placed them in a little pile on the sidewalk.  There were soon over 50 snails making the slowest attempted escape ever.  At last the kids lost interest and we headed on our way.

Norah and Justin both love testing their balance by walking the tightrope down the top of this little 18" high wall that runs the length of a lot.  Since the sun was getting low and the mosquitoes were coming out I begged them to get off the wall so we could get home without being eaten alive.  They both refused.  Justin was determined to pick up the pace, lost his balance and landed with a thunk onto the concrete walk below, scraping his knee in the process.  He considered crying but toughed it out.  At the sight of a small amount of blood he said worriedly "How are we going to tell Mommy about this?"  Soon all concerns were erased as we were distracted by the sight of the Easter Bunny hopping around our neighbor's lawn, nibbling on grass.