The Funeral(s)

My daughter has been so happy Nora, our new neighbor who is a few years younger, has been wanting to play outside.   Yesterday they spent a good bit of time in the back yard at the playset.   They asked me if I knew where the doctors kit was and while I like for my daughter to find things own her own, sometimes it's just harder when you have to look with your hands and can't take a quick glance around the closet to see if it's there.  

She had looked but had been unsuccessful so I went around the house and ended up back in the basement, finding it in the closet right by the door to the back yard.   It was quite frankly adorable seeing the girls with the blue mesh hats the doctors and patients wear to keep their hair out of the way for surgical procedures on both of their heads.   They were doing all sorts of things and I think had forgotten about the hair coverings for at least an hour. 

My daughter wanted to bring out Coco's American Girl doll things she had been given recently and after promising to be careful, did indeed take good care of all the items and had a lot of fun playing with them all afternoon. 

The moved the entire collection of medical and American Girl Doll things to the front yard and were doing things on the front porch and sidewalk when I came out to find my daughter digging in the grass, hands all dirty, right at the edge of the sidewalk. 

Nora had a large, smooth, river rock and was gently placing it over a small patch devoid of grass a little further away.   I asked my daughter what they were doing and she told me, "we're giving the centipedes a burial."

I'm not sure what they were burying were technically centipedes.   They're larger than any I've seen before and have loads of legs.   They remind me of the things large centipede-like things the meerkats ate when I watched that show years ago.   Whatever they are, we have a lot of them.   An infestation from the number of deceased alone.   I think in years past I'd see a few but this year there must be a hundred all around the yard.   

Nora was using a large stick to pick them up and deposit them into the hole my daughter was digging.   Neither girl wanted to touch them.   I said it would be good if they could not dig up the whole front yard and that any burials they wanted to do in the natural area would be okay, but to please limit the grass burials because the lawn man might not realize and his mower would hit the rocks. 

Then I went upstairs and got something I'd gotten at the dollar store: three nesting paper coffins.    I asked if they'd like to use them to bury the centipedes.   Here are two of their burials:

The Big Boy Update:  My son went with Blake and his father to do some fishing locally today.    They went to a creek that had some spots they could wade into...or rather my son waded into in his shoes and pants.  They caught some carp and bluegill and said they could take them home for bait for the next time.   My son thought about it and then said, "can I let one live?" 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been outside all day...and I mean all day.   She came in and got her lunch and had that on the deck even.