Hey Kid, get off my lawn.

This is funnier if you know me in real life and know my neighbors and their last names.

I'm really trying not to be that "hey kid, get off my lawn" neighbor.  We've lived her 12 years, and we really like our neighbors and our neighborhood.

We do have an unusual piece of property with a creek running through the back at the bottom of the hill and a lot of "side yard" along the street.  This combination means that people often park their bikes/strollers/skateboards/minivans along the street to play at or take pictures at our creek.  No big deal.  It's pretty back there.  We keep it mowed pretty well and it's always been a fun place for our own kids play.  We can't see it from the house, but it's still nice to keep the grass short and the creek clean to cut down on bugs in the summer. 

I really don't mind when other kids play back there.  Safely.  Without parking their bikes in my garden.  And without going into my shed to find buckets to collect frogs or snakes (but that's a story for another day).

Lately a group of 8 year old boys has been spending a few hours every afternoon down at the creek doing eight year old boy things.  More than once I've come home from work to see four or five bicycles parked in the backyard and heard the sounds of busy boys down by the creek.  No big deal.  My boys used to spend hours down there finding geods, catching crayfish, skipping rocks....

NO big deal.

Until today when the husband informed me that he was going to work on taking down the dam that someone's been building across the creek.

Yes readers, these ingenious 8 year old boys have managed to form a pond where once there was a small creek.  It's like a haven for mosquitoes and a nightmare for erosion.

So tomorrow when they arrive I'll have to become that "hey you dam kid, get off my lawn" neighbor.