Three reasons why Crystal is cooler then me

Well, the kids have been home for 4 days now and we are still hearing stories of the fun they had while staying at Aunty Crystal and Uncle Jeremy's house.   I'm not surprised in the least, though I do get a little bit sad in the moments when Sam asks me if Aunty Crystal could adopt him.   Mind you, he's quick to reassure me that he just wants to live with her for a while, and then he'll want to come back home.   Yeah.  Sure kid.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to step it up around here a bit more;)

Here's three reasons why Crystal is a cooler mom then me:

1.

For Starters, Crystal's house is a just shy of being an indoor playground!

They have the best basement FULL of awesome toys, things to ride, and swings to play on.  

When I look at this picture I actually start to get a bit nervous.   All I see is a big mess to clean up. 

2.

Crystal does cute crafts with her kids.    Check out this card she helped Abby make for me!   

Each heart contains a sweet little love message (well...sometimes sweet;) and then it was painted over with some funky kind of scratch paint.    Every day I scratch and discover a fun little note.   How cute is that?

My favorite messages so far have been:  

"I will watch Nate for you."

"I will practice my piano.  (withOUT arguing)"  

and

"Auntie Crystal wants to keep us, but we love you more!!!!!"

3.

Crystal is a nature enthusiast!   She conveniently has a family of owls living in a front yard tree, and she's occasionally taken her boys out to collect owl pellets and dissect them.     (In case you don't know- owls don't poop.  Instead they cough up everything they don't digest in the form of nasty little pellets.  Those said pellets can then be dissected and you can easily determine what the owl has eaten by studying the remains in each pellet.)   Gross?   Not to her, because she's awesome like that.    

I was surprised to find a paper bag amongst the kids things when they got home on Saturday.   As soon as Abby saw it she remembered the contents and got right to work.  

First she donned her CSI style work gloves.   

Then she studied each and every bone.  (That once sat in the stomach of an owl btw)

Then she used this "Bone Sorting Chart" to determine just what type of animal had been eaten.  

Who does this sort of thing?   

I'll tell you who.   

My Sister!

She's absolutely cool.  

(in a quirky/hippie/Dr. Suzuki kinda way)

Heck!  I even want her to adopt ME!!!!