Auntie Ann Marie is home, Auntie Ann Marie is home! How did we celebrate? By making a BIG mess! Wait, let me back up a bit, we did not make a big mess, LEO made a big mess.

Auntie Patricia and Malcolm can collaborate this story... in fact Patricia was the only one who saw it all happen. Well, she saw everything, but I think I can safely assume a lot of it was through tears of laughter.

Let me set the scene. Patricia, Malcolm, Clara, Leo and I are sitting in the living room. We are expecting Papa T, Cathy, and Ann Marie from the airport any minute. We've been waiting all day so anticipation is pretty high - it has been a whole year since we've seen our baby sister you know!

I don't know what prompted me to look over in Leo's direction; was it a look of horror on Patricia's face, a gasp from Clara, or the sound of copious amounts of water hitting the floor just to the right of me? All I know is when I looked over to my son he was standing directly in front of the fish tank SOAKING WET. Based on intelligence from Auntie Patricia, Leo had pulled the fish tank just enough to tip it over and send a waterfall on/over his head but not enough to leave the tank on its side. In the chaos of that instant Clara ran over to Leo to check out what had happened and promptly slipped in a large puddle and landed flat on her back. She screamed "what happened, why am I wet???" I scooped her up and plopped her on the front carpet (where she couldn't slip again), I did the same to Leo who was still standing stunned in front of the half full fish tank and instructed them both to "STAY ON THE CARPET". Clara then started screeching "what about Violet Beauregard" (the fish), and in the insanity of the moment I just yelled, "Violet is fine...oh wait where is Violet?!?" The tank showed no signs of life. In that split second all I could think of is "oh crap, Clara landed on Violet" But, after a quick scan of the area I saw Violet flopping around in a puddle. I dashed to the kitchen and grabbed a little bowl to scoop up our friend in peril. It took a few attempts to scoop up the fish but I did get her into the bowl and tucked back into her half full tank in time (whew). During this time, Patricia was either laughing or trying to calm Clara while keeping both kids on the carpet and out of danger of slipping on the wet floor.

Once the immediate panic/horror/danger was past the fits of giggles overtook Patricia and I. Instead of running for a mop I ran for my camera which promptly turned off before I could snap a photo. Luckily Patricia was able to locate her camera and caught the still stunned and very wet Leo who refused to get off the front carpet for about five minutes after the commotion was over.

While I mopped up the mess, and Patricia stripped down the wet kiddos we both laughed until it hurt. Luckily, Papa T, Cathy, and Ann Marie didn't show up in the middle of our freak out... they arrived to find a pajama clad Clara and a nekkid Leo who was refusing to take a both and repeating his mantra "all wet, head, boom, bowl".

This is a story that will go down in the record books. I will never forget it and I'm pretty sure Clara and Leo have the whole thing burned into their memories forever as well.

And here we are, all together again dry and safe... well, minus Papa T and Cathy who were our photographers.