Skunk!

We spotted a skunk in our backyard this morning before school. The kids were excited until they realized that they would eventually have to go outside to get to the car. They kept concocting ridiculously elaborate plans to do so that would, in fact, expose them even more to the skunk. These ranged from Julia's ("We'll run to the end of the block and you pick us up there") to James's ("Do we have an axe? What about a really sharp knife? Don't worry - I'm not going to kill the skunk. I'll just go into the attic and make a hole in the roof and climb out to see where the skunk is. Then we'll take a ladder down to the car.")

Of course we got to the car just fine. And then Julia realized she forgot her library book so I had to go inside and get it. It would have been funny if the skunk had then shown up in the front yard while the kids were stuck in the car, but of course no skunk was spotted (just striped!).

In our backyard. If it's nested under the deck we'll just have to move.

Some choice quotes:
James: (In planning our exit) "Wait, where are the walkie talkies?"
Julia: (Once we all got in the car) "Quick! Lock the doors!"
Julia: "What if the skunk follows our car to school?"
When we got to school James joked that everything was okay, and there weren't any little pawprints left from a skunk hanging off the license plate. Julia went to check anyway.

And that was our excitement for the day.