Hard workers

Happy Birthday Jared Banks! It is our friend Jared's 5th birthday today. We are all going to the Build-a-Bear Factory to celebrate. The girls have been working hard all week to earn something to buy. I have been very impressed with their working ablities. They unload the dishwasher, sweep the floors, make their beds and set the table. I have just given them a few jobs every month. Next month I think I'll try for cleaning the bathroom. I think the key to my chore list success is to keep it simple. I'll keep adding jobs as they get older and pretty soon I can just sit and direct:) I don't see that happening any time soon.

Think Spring!

It snowed 2 inches today. So much for Spring. The girls are terribly confused. "I thought you said it was Spring Mommy?" was heard in the house several times today. My father had the nerve to call from Florida and complain that it was raining.

Gertrude is nice too.

My 4 year old daughter told me yesterday that Mabel is a very pretty name. My poor grandchildren.

Organization is the key!

Our family spent this last weekend organizing the girl's rooms. We removed the lower slats on the bunk beds and moved the double bed underneath the new "loft" bunk. The girls think it is great. (See the pictures on the homepage.) Then the real challange came. We had to move all the toys into Emma's old room and they were all over. The girls never want to clean up because it's too hard. They usually end up shoving stuff here and there. Not anymore! They now have labeled drawers for everything! They even have a drawer with their name on it in case they don't know where to put an item. So far it has worked great. They got a ton of toys out yesterday and cleaned it up themselves without the crying and gnashing of teeth. The main reason we arranged the rooms like this was to get a schoolroom. We now have a place to work and hang things up. Maybe this will inspire us to do school even more!