Isn't it ironic??

It's about time for another story about the boys, so here goes.
Now that the weather is getting nicer and the neighbors got a trampoline, we are getting quite a collection of toys (mainly golf balls but also a prized batman action hero) in our backyard. It wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have 3 boys who require constant, expensive, veterinary attention at least once a month. And with them roaming the yard all day, we were only asking for a golf ball blocked intestine that would require emergency/expensive surgery. Who knows, maybe our vet paid the kids to throw toys in our yard so that he could get a new convertible for summer. Anyways, we decided not to test our luck and went to talk to the neighbors. We had been dreading this because we didn't want to be "those" neighbors who complain about everything and the ones that the kids are afraid of when there ball goes over the fence. We also have the 3 boys, and thus far no one has complained and we didn't want to give them any ammunition. Well, Jonathan complimented me into going over there ("your the nice one" "your too sweet for someone to be mad at" "it doesn't seem as mean when you say it"). The kids were all playing in the front yard and right away the youngest boy told me that sometimes when him and his dad were playing golf, they would hit the ball into our yard. But of course he says it in that cute little kid voice, so you can't be mad. So I had to pull out my cute little innocent girl voice and told him that our dog ate one of the balls and got real sick. (True, the boys chewed up the golf ball. False, they didn't get sick). I then asked him if he could just come over and let us know when they hit a ball over so that we could pick it up before the dogs got to it. He was okay with that.
I went home and was telling Jonathan about it when I heard a little knock on the door. I opened it up to the neighbor girl saying "I think this is your dog." And there was Barney. She proceeded to tell me that the gate was open. She was also very cute and very proud that she knew it was our dog. I told her thank you and asked if she'd seen a white or black dog running around. She hadn't. Jonathan found Chief in the back yard (we figured he stayed because he was glad to get rid of the other two). And Tucker was at our next door neighbor's house. Apparently, we had forgotten to close the gate after the lawn guy had come.
So, I felt like the biggest hypocrite for complaining about toys in our yard when our crazy boys are running loose in the neighborhood (including their yard). Luckily they were too young to see the irony, but none-the-less, I baked them cookies today as a thank you/peace offering.
Once again, the boys got the best of us!!!!