Some of you know that the main purpose of this blog is the immortalize for posterity the goings-on of my family. I have ever intention of having this blog made into "journals" for my family to keep forever...or until they are too embarrassed and decide to file them in the local landfill. So, as I was walking around my house the other day I realized I have overlooked a major part of our recent goings-on. My house is not clean. Most of you know this. I have 4 kids all young. They don't really care how the house looks so it is mostly left up to me (although I force them to clean it get dirty within 2.5 seconds because they just don't seem to care). If anyone has brilliant ideas of how to get the kids in on the cleaning and loving it let me know.
Well, I decided to post pictures of how my house is treated by my children. One day when they have children of their own and go crazy in their houses I will be able to bust out the blog book and show them that it is only "PAY BACK!" So have fun with the pics and with the theme song "Our House" by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Oldie and goodie.
The ceiling in Kylie's room- back with they had bunk beds this was great fun- grab a crayon and color on the ceiling. I obviously haven't cleaned it yet. Hey, it hasn't been a year yet, get off my back.
In the bathroom is a stack of drawers to hold the essentials. You have seen this in a previous post I will not mention. Anyway, coloring is not only for paper and walls, now it is for drawers in the bathroom. I don't recall ever coloring in the bathroom as a child, but if my kids do it, it must be great fun.
Yes, that is a toilet seat lid and that is Malia's little hand. Again, we are in the bathroom. Who needs a fuzzy toilet lid cover when you can just take a pen and scribble cute things on the lid?
This is a wingback chair- I know you love the upholstery. DI special (Utahns know what I mean, huh?). Not long after getting this one the kids decided that this chair needed some extra flair. What goes great on a chair? How about a big hole? Great idea! Let's jab it with a pen until it goes through then just tug at the hole until it opens up nice and big. Let's also do a couple of little holes around it, little babies for the mommy hole. Good times.
Honestly- not even 2 days after Dalen and I finished the basement walls, texturing, painting and just trying to get it to not look like a dungeon (still does, by the way) the kids took the above wingback chair and tipped it over, while standing on it creating this lovely one-of-a-kind hole in the wall. Daddy was just so excited to see the newly decorated wall he could hardly stand it!
This is food. Before I cleaned it off the wall I had to get a picture of this one. You know when you have chocolate syrup on your icecream you really need to practice the good manners of sharing. I don't recall ever including the wall in the list of PEOPLE to share with, but apparently my kids have a list of their own.
Britin was brilliant with this manuever! A week after we finishes painting the hallway upstairs (so it didn't look dirty with the beige walls-YUCK!) she must have thought the walls had an itch. She was scratching the wall over and over again until she noticed that a little bit of paint came off. Well, then she picked at it, pulling at the surrounding paint until it became this! My kids have a knack for picking at things (bears, blankets, skin, etc.).
Now this one, you will notice is the dishwasher. Malia- talented artist that she is, got ahold of a permanent marker and redecorated the front of the dishwasher. Beautiful artwork, don't you think?
Lastly this is the wall downstairs, where mommy rarely goes now, because of things like this.
My final thoughts- thank heavens for Mr. Clean magic erasers. I would love to kiss the brilliant person who came up with that one!
**funny little side-note about the magic erasers- I was cleaning the bathroom not too long ago, getting crayon off of the bathtub- forgot to grab the camera before cleaning up that mess- and left the eraser next to the tub. That night Kylie showered and afterwards came out and told me that her face, just below her eyes was hurting. It was red alright. I thought that she was having an allergy attack or something. Only to find out later that she had used the magic eraser to clean her face. What in the world? Maybe she thought that since it did such a good job of cleaning everything else it would do a great job of cleaning her face. Well, needless to say, but I will say it anyway, she rubbed off a number of layers of skin just below her eyes, leaving huge red marks. She was really embarrassed by this event, so don't mention to her that I put this on the blog. She'll have to wait until she gets older to find out that her mom spilled the beans on this one, K?
** UPDATE- just thought that I'd fill you in on the burn situation on Kylie's face- this happened during the summer. She was better within a few days. I know they aren't safe to clean bodies with, so I am much more careful with them now. Just had no idea at the time that my 7 year old would think it was a helpful body-cleaning tool.**
