Every week Nate spends one afternoon at a friends house who started a science club.  They wear matching shirts and keep a notebook of their experiments.  He absolutely loves science club.  He gets up early, puts on his shirt, calls his friend to confirm and then bounces around the house asking if it's time to go yet.  To date they have made volcanoes, collected items to look at under a microscope, made coke "explode", studied how fireworks behaved,  and made play dough float.  His friends mother even takes pictures of each experiment for their own personal notebooks.   It crossed my mind more than once that it would be nice if I started a club that my children and their friends could attend but nothing came to mind until Yesterday.  My home is the location of the "Out of Control" club. 

Of course I didn't plan it and I don't have pictures, or matching shirts to prove it but it's still true.  It wasn't the 5 doors to the great outdoors that I'm constantly shutting, the constant running and chasing in and out of the house, the empty Popsicle boxes found here and there, or the never ending loads of towels from every kid from the neighborhood and beyond playing in our sprinkler.  It wasn't the science experiment in the driveway that made our garage smell like vinegar for 3 days or the even the "bomb" the kids made with caps and a paper towel roll.  It was a much quieter event.  The cul -de -sac seemed quiet, too quiet so I glanced out the window.  All the kids were sitting in a circle in my neighbors driveway staring intently at something.  It seemed innocent enough and amazing they were actually sitting down.  But it stayed quiet for so long I decided to stretch my legs and walk over.  As I approached the circle the kids were so intent on what they were doing they didn't notice me.  When I peered over the circle of little heads I had a flashback to an earlier conversation with Nate.

Nate:  Mom, can we start a fire in the driveway?
Me:  No.

They were obedient and did not start a fire in our driveway.  They started it in the neighbors driveway, because the older sister said they could.  She is apparently the president of the "Out of Control" club.  Being that 99% of the children were officially at my house however and that I was the only adult at home in the cul -de -sac I was officially responsible.  They were being scientific, starting the fire with a magnifying glass and using it to burn their initials into birch bark.  They had also burned a stack paper.  Noticing this caused another flashback.

Nate:  Hi mom, will you hand me some paper?
Me:  Sure.  (I thought they were going to color.)

The magnifying glass was confiscated, the burnt items cleaned up and the kids moved on to playing in the sprinkler.  Later when a neighbor returned home from work, noticing the toys spread all over the cul -de -sac, kids laying out soaking up the summer sun, kids jumping in the sprinkler, more popsicle's being consumed,  he yelled over "Your house is so much fun".   Your house can be fun too, you just have to come up with a club.