Arrrrrrrrrrr me boys EVER going to stop embarrassin' me?!

(For Aimee, who wondered where Colin's comical interjections were yesterday during our Wal-Mart fiasco....don't worry Aim, Colin is still most certainly Colin.)

The boys and I ventured out to the grocery store today. Just a quick trip for a few things.

After we were all done at the register, I got the groceries loaded. Then I re-loaded the boys into and onto the cart--Ethan in the front, of course, and Colin and Cameron doing the "stand-on-the-back-footbar-and-hang-onto-the-end-of-the-basket" thing.

The boys were gleeful--they love riding on the back of the cart. They were just having a grand ol' time.

As we were coming out of the store, we passed a man who was going in to the store. The previously lighthearted 'conversation' between my two oldest boys came to a screeching halt as they both simultaneously diverted their attention and locked their eyes on 'him'.

This man was very tall. He had long, dark, wavy hair that was streaked in some places with gray. He was scruffy--not in a bum-off-the-street sort of way, but in an I-haven't-shaved-in-about-72-hours sort of way.

And, he was wearing a red bandanna.

Now, I instantly thought "biker dude."

Colin had another idea. Picture this being said at about an eight on a one-to-ten loudness scale: "Look Mom! A pirate!"

I wanted to crawl into the back of the cart.

To make matters worse, Cameron chimed in as well, almost immediately after Colin's exclamation, at about a nine on the scale: "Arrrrrrrgh!"

Shiver me timbers. I wanted to walk the plank die at that moment. Just die.

This poor man, whomever he was, either was 1. stone deaf or, as I would like to think, 2. a really nice gentleman who wanted to preserve the one ounce of dignity that I had left in me, so he pretended not to hear my boys.

The boys were, by this time, dying laughing at each other and yelling, "Arrrrrgh! Arrrrrrgh!" back and forth.

"We're pirates too, Mom!" says Col.

I am, at this point, running as fast as I can to get to our car while attempting to not crash navigate a cart that is loaded down with groceries, one baby, and two pirates boys.

A few minutes later, once safely in the confines of our van, I begin calmly trying to explain to Colin why we don't say things like that out loud in public. "It's not polite Colin. We can't call people names like that."

After thinking for a moment, Colin innocently responds.

"But Mom.....what are we supposed to say to pirates?"