You would think, with today being April Fools...

That I'd have a good "gotcha" story.

I was reading Free Range Kids as recommended by Rixa at Stand and Deliver. Because I'm feeling crampy and sluggish this morning, I was relaxing on the couch while the boys played so nicely together. Jack told me that the kitchen was the storage room. And they were doing 'constructions'. "Cool!" I said. Oh, man, I was so wrong. It's so not cool!Why does Jack look so pleased with himself? After a few minutes of quiet reading and play Henry came crawling back into the living room. His chin and hands and pants were totally white. WHITE? Had they been putting holes in the drywall? What was that white stuff. I jump off the couch and run into the kitchen.

This photo was taken after I'd cleaned up about 50% of the mess.

I find Jack standing paintbrush in hand painting the pantry door with Killz Primer (acrylic based, in case you're wondering). Somehow I manage to keep my head, which is so not typical me, and I say "Okay, nobody move! Jack come stand over here." Hmmm... "I understand those orders are mutually exclusive so please come stand over here so Mommy can do clean up."

"I'm just painting the door, and the table."

"I know, and you did a good job but now it's time to clean up." How am I going to clean this up? I immediately thought about just burning down the house and starting over. Too wasteful. Then I grabbed some Clorox wipes (also pretty wasteful, but I was desperate!) and got to work.

It's coming up. Oh thank God, it's coming up! Now it's not coming up! Some of this is dried on already!

::phone dialing::

"Hey, honey, how would you get primer off the hardwood?"

"Um... why?"

"Jack painted half the kitchen."

"Mineral spirits. On the utility sink. Go! Go! Go!"

"I'll call you in 5 minutes with an update."

We are nothing if not efficient.

Turns out mineral spirits and Clorox wipes and soap and water was all I needed. The kitchen is now actually cleaner that it was before it happened.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Henry's clothes.

So who's idea was this?

Well, they've got that whole solidarity thing down.

This might be weird but I'm most impressed by the fact that Jack used a flat head screwdriver to take off the lid. Found 2 paintbrushes (one for Henry). And managed not to get any paint on himself.

Henry was another story.