People in Your Neighborhood, Part Deux

So, who doesn't remember that song, "People in Your Neighborhood" from Sesame Street? It was one of my favorites!

If you tuned in yesterday, then you would have seen my Wordless Wednesday post with the tantalizing footnote about little people being involved. Today, I'm providing the narrated version!

At approximately 7:45 AM on Friday, Sept. 18th, I was sitting at my computer blogging/facebooking/tweeting/etc. when all of a sudden I heard hysterical laughter and saw two teenagers running/tripping down this driveway (two doors down):



Yup, that's one steep driveway! In fact, during the winter, they have to park on the street if we've had snow or ice.

Well, having been the victim of these teenagers' pranks on more than one occasion (like the time I caught them putting my house up for sale with my other neighbor's for sale sign), I decided that I had had enough and was going to call the sheriff's department. After all, the teen in the getaway car/minivan was revving the engine extremely loud and driving across my other neighbor's lawn, or was he...(other neighbor's house/lawn)



As I ran, barefoot across the chilly dew-covered grass with cell phone in hand, I came to the startling conclusion that those weren't teenagers running down the steep driveway, but rather panic-stricken parents of two pint-sized, unrestrained, DRIVERS.

Apparently, the four-year old unbuckled himself and saddled up to the driver's seat where he managed to press on the break and shift the gear from park to reverse. Of course, his five-year old sister had also unbuckled her seatbelt to tell him to stop and that he was going to get into trouble. Thus, it was not a teenager that I saw in the minivan driver's seat, but rather a bouncing four-year old!

(NOTE TO SELF: Besides the fact that it is completely ILLEGAL to leave children unattended in a vehicle (running or not), it is also quite dangerous!)

Here you can see where the minivan did a 180 degree turn while careening down this homeowner's stone stairs/retaining wall. The minivan eventually came to a halt when it hit several large trees toward the bottom of the ravine.





As yesterday's wordless post contained a majority of emergency vehicle pictures, I'll refrain from posting them again. I'm sure you get the general idea...but I must leave you with these last two pics...

This would be "mater" as in Tow-Mater from the movie Cars. My 2.5 year old son insisted on being photographed in front of the "hook-up" truck and kept referring to the tow truck driver as "mater". It was a bit embarrassing!




And finally, this shot is one of the minivan after it was towed up from the ravine. Erin, over at The Little Things in Life left me the most perfect caption for this photo on facebook...

"Mom, I thought you were watching the kids." "What...I thought you were!"

And by the way...the vanity plate on the front reads, "World's Greatest Grandmother". I should say so when you loan your minivan to your daughter-in-law, who in turn loans it to her four and five-year old kiddos!

Seriously, all joking aside, except for some nasty facial bruises, these two little ones ended up mostly unharmed. Guardian angels were surely riding on their shoulders!!!