All in a day's work

At 5:15 I was at my wits' end with the little kids, so I put them in the bathtub.  They splashed and played in the bubbly water, made beards and mowhawks, and looked all cute and angelic for about ten minutes.  Then Gavin knocked Kate under the water, which she didn't really appreciate, so I took her across the hall for a diaper and pajamas.  In the 60 seconds or so it took to accomplish that mission, Gavin emptied half of the tub water onto the bathroom's wood floor.  When I returned there was about an inch of standing water.

Unfortunately, an inch of standing water in the bathroom means a deluge of "rain" above the washer and dryer downstairs.  The first time this happened, I totally overreacted. Today I calmly used a huge pile of towels to mop up the bathroom and then took them downstairs to catch the rain.

And of course I sent Gavin to his bedroom until dinner.

This little incident came at the end of a long day of mischief and mayhem for the middle child.  During lunch, Gavin smeared his spaghetti all over the table and floor, and crumbled his whole cupcake, sprinkling the remains in a six-foot radius around his chair. (Note: I had JUST swept.)  Then he totally wrecked Kate's jack-o-lantern on the front porch, dug up my flower bed, and filled the pumpkins with dirt.  He also used red and orange stamps to cover himself and his sisters with ink.  The ink likely ruined three shirts, and it isn't coming out of Lexi's white hair.

I AM SO DONE.

Good night.