“Look! A squirrel eating watermelon.”
– Daddy, glad that the rinds he left on the porch railing were being enjoyed

“EEEK! A squirrel-eating watermelon?! (Dramatically) Who knew a fruit could be so savage?”
– Emily, making her father very proud…

“I got no school this week.”
– Amanda

“Sounds like you *ought* to have school this week.”
– Daddy, commenting

“I *have* no school this week.”
– Amanda, correcting

“No… I *don’t* got no school this week!”
– Daddy, “correcting”

“I *ain’t* got no school this week!”
– Emily, continuing

“I done told you I ain’t got no school this week!”
– Mama, capitalizing

“Y’all…”
– Amanda, completing

“What do we want to have for lunch?”
– Mama, just returned with the girls from piano lessons

“I dunno… I just had breakfast.”
– Daddy, who got a late start to the day

“Around here on Saturday, it’s ‘if you’re hungry, eat.'”
– Daddy again, in response to Mama’s look of exasperation

“Well, guess I’m gonna eat all day!”
– Amanda, speaking the truth as only a child can

(Daddy’s spontaneous lyricism, sung to the tune of “Spider-man”)

Mandie-moo, Mandie-moo
Does whatever a Mandie do
Makes a mess, super-sized
There’s her socks! Big surprise.

(This is as far as I got, since Shannon nearly fell out of her chair laughing so hard at the last bit.)

[John is reading Tales of Robin Hood to the girls]

“… He stepped up to address the crowd and silence fell. When they stood silence back up again, he said in a loud voice…”

[Oh, the fun he adds to make sure they’re paying attention!]

“… and what do you call it when there’s only one?”
– Mama, reviewing some basics from previous grammar lessons

“Singular!”
– Emily, smiling because she got an easy question

“And what do you call it when there’s more than one?”
– Mama, expecting another quick answer to another easy question

“… Doubular?”
– Amanda, knowing that’s not quite it, but completely unable to think of the right word

“Mama, the brownies have sunk in the middle since you took them out of the oven! Poor little things. Maybe they’re tired. Maybe we should eat them?”
— Emily, who has had a one-track mind ever since the brownies went into the oven

(singing) “…promote the general welfare a-and, secure the blessings o-of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity…”
– Emily, singing the Preamble of the US Constitution to herself

“Emily? Do you know what ‘posterity’ means?”
– Daddy, sensing a teachable moment

“Uh… no.”
– Emily

“It’s those who come after us…”
– Daddy

– Emily makes a “yikes!” look…

“…like my children and my children’s children and so on.”
– Daddy, finishing his sentence and wondering what the “yikes!” look was for

“Oh… I thought someone was chasing us!”
– Emily, pointing out another meaning of “those who come after us”

While getting ready to watch The Wizard of Oz, we took a few moments (it’s only 13 minutes long) to watch the black-and-white silent-film version, circa 1910.

“Girls? How many years ago do you think this movie was made?”
– Daddy, thinking that the girls will be impressed when he tells them the answer of “almost 100 years ago”

“It was probably back in 1996 when they only had black-and-white TV.”
– Emily, showing an 8-year-old’s complete lack of scale (She was born in 1997!)

>>flash from behind us< >KABOOOM< <
– The roll of thunder that started immediately after Emily asked her question