~partners in crime~

I looked at my cell phone around 3:30 this afternoon when I got back in my car after being in the grocery store. I had this awful feel that something happened to one of my children and I'd have a text or voice mail waiting on me.  Call it mother's intuition... just one of those feelings.  No missed alerts.  All was good!

I decided to swing by Starbucks for a treat... Grande Caramel Frappucnino.  I've had a gift card in my wallet since Christmas and was ready to swipe it for the first time.  I drove home with my window down slightly, singing along with country music on the radio, and sipping my sweet caramel goodness.  I backed into our driveway about 25 minutes later, popped the trunk, and my husband came out to meet me.

That's when I heard the news.  See those two cuties above?!?! Well, don't let them fool you... they are partners in crime!
   
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No one was hurt.  No one was bleeding, bruised, bumped, and no bones broken.  BUT...

They were playing basketball in our driveway after I left for the grocery.  "One" brother got mad at the "other" brother (neither one claims to be the guilty one) and threw the basketball really hard at the "other" brother.  The "other" brother moved out of the way to dodge the fast moving ball.  The ball flew over to the next door neighbor's house and hit the siding... really hard.  Both boys came in and told dad what had happened.  Dad made both boys go next door to tell the neighbor lady they were sorry about hitting her house.  (Yea Dad!)

Neighbor lady opens the door and both boys apologize.  Then, she begins to tell both boys that she heard a noise, went into her bedroom to look, and found that a shelf had fallen off the wall and tons of figurines had dropped to the floor and were shattered.  Neighbor lady tells the boys, "that's OK, I needed to get rid of them anyway".  Both boys say sorry, again, and leave. 
Both boys come back home and tell dad what went down.  Dad immediately tells the boys to get their butts back next door and help neighbor lady clean up the mess.  (Yea Dad, again!!)  Then dad decides to go with the boys and help.

So, all three boys head back next door.  Dad moves a bunch of furniture out of the way so the boys can (carefully) pick up the many vintage figurine parts and throw them in the trash.  Dad asks what we can do to repay for this accident.  Again, neighbor lady is very understanding and says, "everything is OK... accidents happen." After a lengthy back-and-forth banter, all three boys head on back home.

Then, both brothers got an earful from dad. 
Good news and bad news.
     
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I went into our living room, both boys on separate couches and very quiet.  I said, "heard you had quite an afternoon, boys."
And this is what my older son says:  "It's OK, mom.... she said she was going to get rid of all that stuff anyway." (REALLY!?!?!)
I walked in towards the kitchen and took a long, hard sip of my Starbucks treat.

We will not be hearing the constant sound of two basketballs being dribbled in our driveway the rest of this week.  I'll have to figure out what we are going to do for the neighbor lady to make up for this little incident.  But, all in all, I'm glad it wasn't worse considering I had that gut feeling prior. 

Both of the "other" brothers are still in one piece ... that's more than I can say for the figurines in the trash can next door.