Who - my kid?

Since we were having a beautiful "winter" evening here (it was 80 degrees or better) I thought it was a great idea when the kids all wanted to go outsside. All was going well for about 30 minutes, and then we heard a knock at the door.

Our neighbor that lives directly behind us politely asked if this was the house "with all the kids in the back yard". I reluctantly admitted that it was, and he proceeded to inform me that some of the boys were breaking boards on his fence that separates our yard. Being a younger man, obviously with no kids, he said "I asked them not to do that, but they did not listen to me." I was a little suprised at this because although my kids will 99% of the time turn a deaf ear to what I say, they will usually listen to other adults.

I apologized many times over and Matt offered to replace the boards. Neighbor was very nice about it, just said he was worried about his dog slipping over into our yard with the huge gaping holes that were now there.

After an intense investigation, guess which one of our kids was involved? Yep, this had Sam written all over it. Maddy was let off the hook right off the bat since he did pinpoint "boys" and the "eyewitness" Luke said she was swinging the whole time. Luke admitted that he was standing with the boys and that he touched the fence, but promised that he did not break any boards. And Luke has always been good at confessing when he does something wrong, so after a brief interrogation we decided he was telling the truth. And then there was one. Matt talked with Sam first, and his immediate response to his daddy was blame - "Luke did it!". But after reminding Sam about not lying, he finally confessed. But, in his defense he told me that he was "just trying to talk to the doggy" in the neighbors yard. After the punishment was served, we talked to all of them about staying away from the fence and always telling the truth.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how well they were listening...