A Hunting We Will Go

This morning I was awakened just before 7:00 by Ethan talking to Andy. I hear, "Dad, is today a school day?" Andy tells him that it is and Ethan says, "Rats!" Later he tells me that he should just skip school because he needs to hunt for dragons with Eli! Skip school? Yep, I thought that wasn't supposed to start until high school or at least late in junior high. Ethan is only in Kindergarten, yet almost every day I struggle to get him to school. From forcing him to get dressed in the morning to the out the door and then back again to complain that he still doesn't want to go, or can't I please drive him...

But who can blame him when there is the ever important dragon hunting to do. We were at our land on Saturday. I had coiled up a rope which had left an imprint in the dirt. I pointed it out to the boys and told them it was a snake print. They raced to see it for themselves. While the were examining it they noticed a small little salamander. Immediately they picked it up and rushed it to me, exclaiming what they had found. Being the silly Mom that I am, I told them that I thought it was a baby dragon! Benson, ever practical said, "How can you tell? And besides, there's no such thing as dragons." I gave him a stare and explained that you could tell it was a dragon because it's eyes came out farther from its head than a salamander. They were all over this and loving it! They played with the creature to about an inch of his life before we convinced them to let it go. Since then our house has been full of talk about dragons. The swords have filtered out of the toy box and plans for the next hunt have been made!

While at the butterfly conservatory yesterday, Ethan got to pet an Australian dragon. We had to take pictures to prove to Benson that dragons are real! So, now all the boys are in on it. This Saturday should prove to be exciting and fruitful for the Dragon Hunters as there is no shortage of salamanders at our property. Soon they will be looking for the big dragon though... I hope they don't find a bear cave in the process...