Mommy's Little Helpers

One benefit to cleaning the garage was that I came across a little shop kiosk for the kids that hadn't been put together. The benefit of cleaning the playroom was that there was actually a place to put it. The only problem? It needed to be assembled.

Sunday evening after the playroom was clean I unpacked the pieces and soon discovered I was missing some key parts-- part "U" which had a screw at the bottom of a post with a screw head at the top. I suspected Ryan had taken them because he was fascinated with the parts and pieces but we couldn't find them anywhere. I even went to Lowe's to see if they sold the part but they were no where to be found. Too bad, because I was actually motivated to put it together.

Monday morning I had to go to Ross' school to pick up his cell phone from the office for the THIRD time this year. I told him that if it gets taken away again he can kiss it goodbye because I won't be picking it up again. Hello!!! If you have to keep it in your pocket at least put it on silent so when your friends from Tennessee feel them must text you during the day at least you won't get in trouble. So I loaded up the babies in the van to head to Ross' school. Ryan wanted to take a purse that he had found when we were cleaning.

The purse drives Ross crazy. "He's a boy, Mom! Not a girl!"

"He's not hurting anything. Its OK" I reply. I sincerely doubt Ryan will be carrying a purse to high school. Besides Ross wanted his nails painted when he was 3 and he doesn't paint them now, that I know of anyway.

In any case, as the little ones were being loaded into the van Ryan's purse fell to the floor of the van spilling its contents. I hate it when that happens! But in this instance it was a good thing because this is what I found:

Yes, that would be the missing part "U." Now we were in business!

I got Ross' phone, went home and headed straight upstairs to start work. Of course, the little ones were with me.

Ryan is totally fascinated with anything that is put together or taken apart so I had his total attention. Emma just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

They both wanted my screw driver so, somewhat against my better judgement, I gave them both one but was very watchful. Ryan went straight to work sticking the screw driver in a hole. Emma is saying "What's that boy doing?"

Monkey see, monkey do. Emma decided to help. I hire them out. Cheap.

They soon lost interest and wanted to just climb on parts and pieces. It was an easy item to assemble so about 30 minutes later it was finished.

Just in time to play for a few minutes before lunch time and nap time. Yes, Emma lost her pants in the process. That 30 minutes included a nasty diaper change.

This morning I needed to plant some mums into the pots the front porch. Ryan was in the middle of it all wanting to see what was going on. When I finished I let him play with the left over dirt and shovel.

I told him to move the dirt from one pot to another. Fifi's checking it out.

Emma couldn't let Ryan have all the fun and wanted to share. This kept them occupied for a good 10 minutes. That's a longer attention span then my older children have.

I decided that since they seemed to have the job/chore thing under their belts it was time for even bigger things. Like driving.

Ryan is taking a break from mowing the lawn to teach Emma how to drive.

The roads will never be safe again!