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team work!

it's not every day that an activity arises that invokes the cooperation of ALL of my kids. today we had one!

layla asked if i could bring the yellow table inside so she could set up a restaurant in her room. I said sure, but I would have to clean it up first. *sigh* that’s easier said than done.

back in the spring, we took the table outside so she and micah could have their lunch outside on it, and with all the wet, nasty weather and such, I just kinda left it out there, instead of bringing it back in right away so it would stay clean... which means it was dirty. gross, nasty, spiders, snails, etc. plus, because it’s an ikea snap-together set, it had various parts which had filled up with rainwater. which meant that it had to be all taken apart and dried out and cleaned and yada yada yada… all more reasons it just continued to stay outside because I didn’t want to deal with it. but I knew it needed to be done.

so I went outside with my bottle of simple green, a few cleaning rags, a towel, and a screwdriver. I put everything on the back deck and started prying tops off of stools, pulling legs out, etc. I had just gotten the table top cleaned when I hear, “can I help?” so I told layla to grab a rag and start cleaning off the table legs. pretty soon micah shows up asking to help. so I sent him to grab another rag and put him to work on the stool legs. I had been telling the kids to take all the clean pieces into the living room so they were out of the way until we could put them back together. shane walks in and sees all that and asks what’s going on, so I commissioned him to be in charge of reassembling everything!

all in all, it took about 30 minutes to get everything clean, reassembled, and moved into the bedroom. AND, it was really fun! I love it!

they’re currently ALL in there playing restaurant. (which, ironically, is not going nearly as smoothly as the cleaning portion… based on the bickering I hear down the hall.)003

ah, yes. see layla’s pouty face? apparently there was some disagreement about who would be cook, server, and customer… oh well. hope they get it worked out.

but don’t the table and stools look nice? LOL.

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