In the past month, we've had the weirdest weather imaginable (and for D.C., that's saying something).  It's been ridiculously hot all month, yet every few days we have a torrential downpour which causes us to check the street for actual cats and dogs bouncing off the pavement.  Then ten minutes later, the sky is clear and the sun is back again, baking everything to a nice toasty goo of humidity and steam and blech.  In at least three of those rainstorms, we've had hail to accompany the animal menagerie precipitation... when it was 100 degrees on the ground. What the what?

A couple of weeks ago, I had promised the Shortlings that they could go out and play in the car kid wash.  But suddenly the heavens opened and it began pouring like God turned a firehose on us.  They had already put their swimsuits on and whined because they couldn't "get wet in the sprinkler" so I told them to just go outside and prance around in the rain.  They were thrilled and went outside with shrieks of delight.  It's amazing how little excites them sometimes.

They weren't out there five minutes before walnut-sized hail started falling from the heavens.  So I stuck my head out the door and yelled,

"Girls.  Time to come in."

"No!  We're having fun!"

"Well, it's starting to hail and you need to come in."

"Aw, MOM!  We don't want to come in! We want to stay outside and... ow. Ow. Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow OW!"

They came in. 

Sometimes, Moms know stuff.

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The result of these days of really wet weather with disgustingly high humidity in between is that our neighborhood has been inundated by an army of fungi.  More kinds than I have ever seen before.  I'm sure you know what that means.  Why a photo essay about fungi, of course. You may have to click to embiggen some of these to really seem them.  Or not.  Some are pretty gross.

Case in point:  This is by far the oddest fungus I've seen and it's in our front yard.  I'm gonna keep my comment on the shape and appearance to myself in the interest of keeping a PG-rated blog.

It looks way scarier from this angle.

Tiny button fungi brothers.

Big toadstool fungi twins.

Pacman mushroom.

This one is just a mess.  It's like God spilled a fungus.

This one reminds me of a Kevin Bacon movie.

The Caterpillar was thrilled to spot a fairy ring near the bus stop in the morning.

This giant toadstool appeared in our backyard yesterday. 
The girls had a lot of fun with it.

I don't know a lot about mushrooms and I don't have a clue as to which are poisonous vs. safe.  So I'm constantly yelling at them to wash their hands after touching one.  Perhaps I'll consult Doctor Google.  On second thought, maybe it's easier to tell the girls to just leave them all alone.

The Dormouse tests out the literal interpretation of the term toadstool.

I found this later in the evening after they'd finished playing outside and had gone in for a bath.

A feast fit for a fairy.