...and it continues

Marian - this one is for you (and for anyone else who hasn't gotten tired of my reports on Megan's daily messes).  Then I promise I won't bore you with her further messes.

Don't let her cuteness fool you...

Yesterday, while John and I were still luxuriously sleeping in, Megan decided to get into more trouble. 

Whilst her sisters were glazedly sitting in front of the boob-tube (as my dad used to call it, uh, not really sure where he came up with that one, and now that I am thinking about it, I never asked him...wish I could call him up and ask, but alas, I digress...)

I have three large buckets in my pantry, one with rice, one with flour, and one with sugar.  They just so happened to be filled to the brim at the time, perfect for a 3-year-old playground.  She proceeded to dump rice - LOTS of it - into both the sugar and flour containers.  Next up was taking a big wooden spoon for stirring up her new concoctions, in the process dumping flour and sugar onto the floor. As she paddled about the kitchen and living room in between stirring sessions, she trailed bits of the white stuff with her. 

When I walked down the stairs, I noticed the white footprints and immediately, a gut-wrenching feeling hit as wandered in to find the source of said whiteness.  I learned all to quickly that it is nearly impossible, if not entirely, to remove rice from sugar and flour.  I had to dump out the entire buckets - precious money well-spent down the drain.  *Sigh* 

Next up in the day was the smidgets of gum I found on our new case for the tablet.  No problem, right?  Just small smidgets, easy to remove.  Hardly!!  Many-a-minute later, I had gotten most of it scraped off, but I think there is still a slight residue of gumminess left.  I have now reconsidered buying anything new until she turns 5. 

On a slightly different note, I had an incredible experience on Saturday for one of my story assignments.  It was one of those stories that left me in tears at the end, as I was so overcome with emotion for what the interviewees had experienced, and let me tell you, tears do not mix well while taking notes.  It was a sweet experience though. Feel free to read the story if you'd like:

http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/02/23/internment-camp-survivors-share-stories

 

Icy Fun

We decided to do something fun on Presidents Day with a little ice skating. 

 

 Natalie couldn't quite figure out how to "slide"...she just kept running on the ice, which resulted in a lot of this...

Of course, she quickly got back on her feet and was back out doing this...

 

Megan had a lot of fun working it with her sisters.

 



 

Happy Burnt V-Day

We had a lovely day yesterday - burnt offerings included.  I'll get to that in a minute though.  The best stuff first. 

John and I got this lovely thing for each other. 

We've had an orchid before, but we failed miserably at keeping it alive, so we've done some research and are hoping to implement the new techniques in keeping this baby from wilting. 

Now, onto the burnt offerings.  I wanted to try out a new homemade cake recipe for John and the girls for Valentines Day, so off I went to work in the kitchen.  The recipe assured me it was for beginners, so what could possibly go wrong, especially for me who adores baking cakes and cookies?

 

Uh, apparently, I forgot to add the 1 cup of boiling water.  If you are wondering what happens when you leave out such a vital ingredient, here you go...

 

When I first inserted the cake into an oven, I didn't realize I would need a "catch-all" pan, so,

 

 

it's now all over the wire racks and bottom of the oven, with deliciously-smelling smoke wafting out. 

 

So, I moved onto attempt #2 with Kimberly's help.

 

 MUCH better. 
 

 

On a side note, if you were wondering what messes Megan has created since my last post, here's what I've been cleaning up:

 

* Trails of toothpaste from the bathroom into her bedroom.  My carpet is now "minty-fresh."

* Handfuls of plucked plant leaves plucked in several nice, cute piles in the living room. 

* Water color paint all over her hands, arms, and the chairs.

* Shredded cheese pulled out of the fridge and lovingly distributed on the kitchen floor, which I haven't cleaned up yet. 

...and the list goes on, but I'll spare you from an even lengthier epistle.  The broom is awaiting my attention. 



 



...in case you were wondering

...just exactly what other messes Megan accrues on a daily basis, here were yesterdays lovelies:

* The entire roll of paper towels unrolled, onto the kitchen counter and floor, where many had been used under the sink faucet to see how much water they could hold, then strewn about leaving a nice puddly mess.

* Speaking of puddles, I later encountered the bathroom floor covered with water and wet toilet paper.  It didn't have a yellow hue to it, so it thankfully wasn't Megan's pee (which was the day before yesterday), but it was probably safe to assume it was toilet water.

* Then into my bathroom, where she found my nice - unopened - box of tampons.  I guess she wanted to know what they were, so she opened the box, and proceeded to "use" most of them.  This time though, she had the decency to at least put most of them in the trash and then took the liner out of the can and told me she needed to take the garbage out.  hmmm...

* She was playing contently with her play kitchen and dishes.  I only discovered later that she had been using water from the bathroom sink in her cups, which then found themselves spilled all over the carpet.  It is just water though, so I shouldn't be complaining about my wet socks that discovered the wetness, right? 

* The scissors (yet again...I think I need to become a scissorless house) made their way into her hands and she decided to cut holes in her cute pants.  Good think short season is just around the corner...or not. 

However, moving onto today.  We'll see what she has in store.  In fact, I think I hear her using the water squirt bottle upstairs.  I shall go investigate...

The Three-year-old Srikes Again

 

 This is what I encountered when I walked downstairs after my shower this morning.

 

 

Sugar anyone?

 

This just 5 days after we deep cleaned the kitchen.

 

Kimberly here is cleaning the railings - including the bottom plate on BOTH sides. 

Alicia had the luxury of deep cleaning the table and chairs.

I did some walls and the other set of railings.

 

This year I am determined to get our spring cleaning done before fall, so we're getting a head start.