Birds, a bee, life and death

The other day Claire gave me my orders as she was running off with Anne to chase away bee-eating birds: “Mom, you stay here and watch Biggie” –a bumblebee we had rescued from a bucket of water—“Make sure he doesn’t die.”
“I can’t stop something from dying.”

“You just have to keep it from dying.”

Oh.  Sure.  No problem.

Later, when Biggie flew away, Anne called out, “Biggie, come back and visit!  If you get hurt, fall into the bucket again, then we can help you.”

Claire said, “Anne, if he dies, we can’t stop it.  But we won’t let that happen.”

In other news, Damon found his mouse dead this morning.  It was sad (for him).  Mice don't like to be alone, so the kids are convinced we're going to have to let the last mouse standing (Claire's) go in the woods so it can find other mice.  Could this be the end of our mouse invasion?!  I'm crossing my fingers...