Paint Brushes in Bags Aren't Safe; 2-year Brothers Make Good Scape Goats; Older Sisters Make Good Witnesses

Now that we know that #4 is going to be a baby girl, we've decided that we ought to consider getting Max's room in order. We just bought him a new sports-themed bedding set and are also considering some new furniture for his room. Additionally, we have been trying to figure out paint colors to tie the whole thing together.

This afternoon we quickly painted a very small section of wall with paint samples from Home Depot to compare two different colors of blue. Afterwards, we put the used disposable brushes in a bag with some other trash, tied it up, and put it up on the changing table--seemingly out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and out-of-reach.

A few hours later we heard Alison call down to us, "Max and Kaitlyn are painting the walls!"

I wondered how that could be? Where did they get paint? It turns out that the brushes in the trash were still wet enough to paint with and Kate and Max had painted on 1 wall in Max's room (which was fine because, as I mentioned, we were going to be painting it anyway), 1 wall in the hallway and 2 walls in Kaitlyn's room (which was not fine because we have already painted thos walls a nice non-Blue color).

Both kids heard us come running up the stairs and took off and hid. They knew they were in trouble. Fortunately, since the paint was still wet, we were able to get it off of 2 of the 3 walls where they had painted.

Oh yeah, one of the reasons we had decided to paint the walls in Max's room was because Max and Kaitlyn had, a few weeks ago, already taken pencil to the walls in there. (Hint: it doesn't erase as easily as you might think when it's done on flat paint.)

It's a good thing that these partners in crime are so stinkin' cute. I wonder which one of them was the mastermind of the whole plot?

Eruption and The Trike-a-Thon

Recently, Alison's class at school has been studying Mexico. Ali has been especially intrigued by the volcanic activity in Mexico after reading a short story in class that recounted an eye-witness account of the formation of a volcano. So, when the class was given an assignment to produce their first research paper about Mexico, Ali's chosen topic came quite easily.

What didn't come quite as easily, however, was convincing Ali that a full volcanic science demonstration was not required as a visual aid. I think Ali has been reading our copy of "Getting to Yes" because she somehow negotiated her way into our doing it.

We tried our best to design a mountain structure that could withstand the intense heat of molten lava, but unfortunately construction paper, old Pepsi bottles, poster board and paint aren't as heat-resistant as you might think. Rather than re-engineer a new volcano which could withstand the lava, we instead opted to use a baking soda and vinegar lava-substitute and soak, not melt, the plastic figurines we decorated the volcano with.

(Note Ali's missing teeth. This was not an unfortunate consequence of some volcano malfunction. She's just missing 5 teeth--including the four in front!")

Megan was able to fill her role in the whole ordeal...I mean "experience"...by attending Ali's oral presentation and eruption demonstration at school and capturing these pictures. (They did not have the Van Halen song "Eruption" playing the background, unfortunately.)

Max contributed by accompanying Megan to Ali's class and trying to destroy everything he could get his hands on. Probably.

Kaitlyn, recently had a Trike-a-Thon at her school. She was one of two riders who successfully completed the 50-lap course (and did it on just two wheels to boot). Kaitlyn was able to keep up with her friend Collin (son of our good friends George and Brittany, and the other 50-lap completer) the whole time, although she opted to ride with her eyes open most of the time.

On an unrelated note, Kaitlyn was talking to Megan the other day and Megan suggested that Kailtyn do something (exactly what we can't remember...let's say it was 'clean her room'). Kaitlyn's response was classic: she looked at Megan in the eyes, put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one side and said, "Mom, that is so 1999!"