By Laura Grimes

“How’s JoJo dealing with jetlag?” his grandmother asked with not even a hint of a chuckle in her voice.

He hasn’t missed a beat. He was out the door first thing to track down his neighborhood buddies and tell them all about his travels. See for yourself, with kudos to the Small Large Smelly Boy for doing most of the clicking and a silent thank you to the neighbor with the seductive garden nozzle who has no idea how much time JoJo spends in her garden or that we carelessly splash photos of her menagerie:

This is the Small LSB’s very own gnome garden he planted by himself and has been carefully tending. It’s JoJo’s favorite place of all. He’s leaning on a magic bean that’s coming up!

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The tackiest souvenirs known to civilization have been a smashing success. Literally. The mini catapult that really mini catapults has repeatedly launched a Hobgoblin beer cap at little metal soldiers that are placed in a variety of formations. Then the Small LSB counts how many times it takes to knock them all down. This is what we call capital entertainment on a rainy day.

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And … we are hard at work on the model of a beheading that really beheads. The package tells us that it is easy to assemble and that “time, attention and concentration are required.” What we have learned so far:

• So much time, attention and concentration are required that we should be done by the time the preteen LSB is ready to get married.
• I see London, I see France. The executioner wears no pants.
• This makes a raucous tune by which to build beheading models.