Playing Together

It seems like I'm always trying to get the girls to play together, without me. This seems to be accomplished only if I'm in the same room with them (which means I get ample scripture, magazine, and book reading time these days).

This afternoon was a little different. The girls actually stayed downstairs, playing, while I went upstairs. I talked to my mom on the phone for about 15 minutes. During the conversation, she commented that it seems like the girls were playing nicely together and leaving me alone for a change. "Yeah, that is kind of nice," I thought.

Fast forward to the end of the phone conversation, when it dawns on me that they have been unusually quiet. Any parent of small children only knows what this means. So, I go back down to the basement. On my way down, I asked Morgan if they were cooking something special for me (in their play kitchen). She replied, "Yes. But we got hungry, so we used real food." (Think about how you would respond. It's probably how I did.) What kind of disaster was awaiting me at the bottom of the stairs???

With only a few more steps to the bottom of the stairs, I can see their collection. I enter the basement and find that they have removed EVERYTHING they could reach from the shelves of our food storage AND shelf reliance. Sadie jumped and immediately dropped the bag of crackers she had just opened.
(Note: this an OLD picture from when we first moved our food storage into the basement. The shelves and the shelf reliance are completely loaded now!) So, I clearly expressed my feelings, and disapproval, then supervised only as they put EVERY refried bean can, peanut butter jar, spaghetti sauce can, cracker box, noddle package, raisin bag, etc. back in its rightful place. Then, I sent them both upstairs to time out until Daddy came home.

Lucky for them, he walked through the door a few minutes later.