Why those rotten little........

MONSTERS!!

Chris and I recently painted the whole first floor of our house. It's a deep colour - officially called Hawaiian Cinder, but commonly knowns as burgundy. Took 6 coats, and 6 days to do it, mostly while the boys were in bed.
So, while we are loving this colour, it warms up the whole place - and looks rather spectacular if I do say so myself, there are inevitably going to be some touch ups needed. I can see where someone has already banged the corner of the wall and taken a little chunk out, leaving a glaring white chip on our pristine red wall.
The paint we used is currently being stored in the basement - high up on the top shelf of a shelving unit. NOrmally, I can't even reach it myself without a chair, but we forgot something.

At the time we bought the paint, we also bought some lumber, so we could start doing the framing in the basement - the first step in finishing it off before putting drywall on.
The lumber was stacked nice and neatly in front of the shelving unit - making for a perfect little ladder. By climbing up on the ladder, someone as small as say oh 37" tall can manage to reach the paint cans on the top shelf.

Now I don't let my kids even finger paint at home. They must do it at Sunday school though because somehow, they managed to get the lid off the paint can, poor a nice little puddle on the concrete floor right in front of the stairs, and they had their magnetic letters (their good Leap Frog Fridge Phonics letters) and were dipping them in the paint, and making W's and S's all over the carpet we had put down there in a makeshift office for Chris.....

Of course, we were both upstairs, entertaining a guest, thinking that the kids are happily playing with playdough down there, and not possibly doing something they aren't supposed to be doing....

Only until Duncan came upstairs however, and informed us that "Matthew is shredding papers" which is a huge NO NO as they are not allowed anywhere near the shredder.
Chris has visions of them shredding his work manuels and cutting their fingertips off, and indeed they've been BANNED from going near the shredder ever since Matthew broke our first shredder by trying to put pennies through it. So of course Chris jumps up, desperate to save our son's digits from the clutches of a hungry shredder, only to be met at the bottom of the stairs by a doll that is covered in red paint.
It looks like a massacre down there. The doll doesn't make it. I give her a decent burial in a white plastic kitchen catcher - not overly concerned, since the boys never did make any effort to play with her, and more often then not she got pitched down the stairs as they laughed and ran off to play with cars and other more masculine toys. (Hey, I tried to nurture that side of them, but they really do not care for dolls at all).

So now, I am stuck cleaning up the grisly scene in the basement. Boys got sent to bed, and took the punishment pretty well - there was no yelling, no spanking, just a firm lecture, followed by immediate bedtime - no friday night treats.

I have to remember that they are still very young. I'm sure they were only thinking of making some beautiful piece of artwork, probably excited about showing me their masterpiece, only to be puzzled as to why mom and dad are ripping their hair out, biting their bottom lips and trying to restrain themselves from screaming.....


I'm off to clean up the house of horrors