Habemus papam!

I missed seeing the white smoke--even though our family has been watching live for an hour so as not to miss it--because at that exact moment my sick four-year-old needed Mama's special TLC. But the rest of the family was glued to the screen and saw the historic moment!

We broke Mama's cardinal rule (pun intended--ha ha) that food must be consumed only in the kitchen and allowed the children to take their snacks to sit in front of the TV to wait for "the Balcony Scene." This resulted in double fun because John made many crumbs and then got the privilege of sucking them up with the Dustbuster vacuum.

 Doing a happy dance when he heard the pope's name: Pope Francis

 John Francis: "He's named after me! He's named after me!"

How six-year-old boys occupy themselves while trying to last through long news coverage of grown-up topics