The Garage is BANNED!!!!

Banned?

Why yes banned. The little boys that is.

You see, we've had a rash of mischief pretty much all over the garage. The list includes, squirting wood glue all over the cement floor, silica sealer that was in a dispenser that resembles some kind of space gun, shot all over the floor. A ladder was climbed and someone found an oil can with a trigger, they got Jane's bike and that too was on the floor. They took the rivet gun and scattered the rivets all over.

The crowning accomplishment, Kent has an elaborate system set up to lock the freezer. There's a metal cable hung the entire circumference of the freezer (it's an upright). Then he has the cable cinched into place forming loops with cable clamps. Just to be clear when asking Kent what those were called, I said "Kent what are those woohickeys called that hold your whatchamathig together to lock the freezer?"

I'm so technical minded.

Anyhoo, Kent called all the possible culprits into the garage. There was a line-up followed by a whole lot of denial from all three boys. To be fair, only one crime at a time was investigated. We didn't need more finger pointing and blaming.

Kent started with the freezer. The cable clamps hold the cable laced around the handle of the freezer. Just one little way to keep from losing the whole cable around the bottom. An observation was made that someone loosened the clamps enabling it so they could just thread and unthread the cable to get into the freezer.

I might add that an entire bag of candy has disappeared the last week or so I knew something was up, but I thought someone was swiping my keys and I had no proof on who was doing the thieving.

Ean blamed the twins and the twins blamed Ean but this type of thinking, well really there is only. One. Suspect. And he denied for ten whole minutes before his daddy got it through his stubborn red headed demeanor, that it would be to his benefit to fess up but yes, Ean did spit out the truth.

So the punishment was fitted to the crime. A complete banishment from the garage the entire, holiday, three day weekend. Since the bikes are stored in the garage, this meant no bikes as well. Nothing. Nada. There was a firm chance for more on top of that if so deemed during the weekend.

Then Kent tackled the oil. Same story, everyone blamed everybody however the suspect list was quickly narrowed to the twins and we were both 99% sure that David was the do-er of the deed. See, Greg is a follower and really not an instigator like the other two. He's often along for the ride but he doesn't the light bulbs above his head that scream "Hey, this would be GREAT FUN!"

David's mantra was "Always say no and never confess" however when I finally leaned over and quietly whispered in his ear "Are you saying no because you're afraid of getting in trouble because you did it?"

He shook his head yes and I had to bite my tongue because dang, in trouble or not, the kid was so precious.

So we put a ban on the twins too. Greg actually didn't get nailed for any crimes but it's

1. Easier to keep everyone out the garage rather then just a few and

2. As stated above, we're pretty sure Greg was in on at least some of the mischief even if we didn't have a specific crime nailed to his booty.

Now ironically enough, Kate had just recorded her brother's committing mischief rather then just telling me they were a mere two nights ago. That's a whole 'nother story I think because the need to record them with PROOF really was kinda funny on Kate's part.

I should add, don't feel to bad for Greg. He got to go run errands with daddy a half hour later because he was the one boy that was honest and didn't lie to us.

He almost didn't mind not being allowed on his bike.