This is really a thing, y'all!

When the boys have behaved relatively well each day, we let them watch 3 minutes of a video of their choosing before bedtime reading.  This treat has devolved into them instructing us what specific and exact words to put in the search function of YouTube (Momma, write "ginormous stuffed blue leopard chasing a warthog!"). 

I'm not quite sure how we stumbled upon the thing that has captivated them for the last month but I'm here to assure you that it's really a thing, it has a deep base of followers and producers, and I could not be more scared about the state of the interwebs and what interests humans when I watch this stuff.

What is it, you ask?  It's the cult of surprise eggs.  Seemingly relatively sane adults and sometimes kids record themselves opening all different sizes of plastic, playdo-wrapped eggs filled with the trending toys du jour.  The mystique in these videos comes from how quickly or slowly the treasures within the eggs are revealed, how well the person doing the revealing describes the features of the toy itself, and how long said person doing the revealing plays with the unwrapped treasures within the eggs.  Did I mention there is either full-on commentary in which every action the revealer takes is talked about while the suspense builds for the viewers or there is some chirpy, happy music playing and the revealer does no talking.   In no uncertain terms are the kids not captivated.  Maceo and Cassius chatter through each video:  Ooh, Maceo, I think it's going to be Lego Batman! No, no, wait, it's Spiderman - ooooh!

Maceo was so inspired recently, he came up with this.  Just so you can have a taste of the utter entertainment awesomeness that is going on in our house right now.

A Counting Game from Cassius

Each year, Maceo and Cassius's school holds a fundraising gala for which each class of each grade has to submit a class project to be auctioned.  Cassius's class decided, among other gifts, to make a 1-10 counting game showing all the kids in the class.  Can you find our crazy-haired monkey in this photo?

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

I recently sold some extraneous bike gear and after the last guy left, I walked back into the dining room where Kate and the boys were sitting at the dining room table. I gave $20 to Kate, and Cassius piped up in a sweet and polite voice, "Can I have a dollar, please?" "Nope", I replied. "I only have $20." "Can I have $20, please?" said Cassius in the same sweet voice. He's going to be rich, I tell you!

Two Slightly More Enthusiastic Gymnasts...

We've now logged four gymnastics sessions and I am excited to report an exponential increase in enthusiasm and ability.  Well, mostly in enthusiasm.

First, a proper warm up. 

And, oh, the tumbling!

And the jumping!