Follow the Smiley Face Road!

It always amazes me how quickly my kids can go from sitting and watching a cartoon, peaceful and quiet as can be, to getting into something they really shouldn't be doing. 0 to 60 in a millisecond. It's those damn commercials. I usually listen for them because I know that's when I have to be on my toes. Once those evil things interrupt the cartoon, the trance is broken. It must have been a mom who invented DVDs. Who else would know that cartoons running one after the other would be THE invention? Our children need a distraction for more than fifteen minutes so we can actually shower once in a while!

So on Saturday I was on the telephone. I tell my kids that even prisoners get one phone call, that's all I ask for in the morning. While I'm drinking my tea, I get ONE phone call to my best friend. She has 4 kids and the two of us need that venting adult conversation time to kick start our days. Now, what I'm going to tell you certainly, by far, is not the worst they have done. Believe me, not in a long shot, but I thought it was just as funny.

I'm standing in the kitchen, gabbing, drinking my tea and they start running around. Our living room, dining room, and kitchen are all open except for a partial wall between the living room and kitchen. It has two doorways so they run circles through the rooms. I think, "Commercial." I can hear her kids too. They are trying to get her attention on the other end of the phone, she says, "Commercial." We talk for another, I don't know maybe 3 minutes and say good-bye. The Schmitty kids have been sprinting through the rooms for approximately 5 minutes. I look down and find this:



It is a trail of smiley face stickers that leads all the way through the main part of the house. They are stuck to my hardwood floor. So I call for the kids. This is what comes out from hiding:



It seems big brother, W., was having a grand old time decorating his younger siblings. This is what happens after a week off from school and crappy weather. T. looked all cute with his earrings and bindi. And I do appreciate the stickers over R.'s mouth, cause we all know that girl sometimes needs to shut up refrain from talking so much.

However, the part I didn't put together was when I was on the telephone and they were running past me, they kept bumping me. This isn't unusual, especially for T. as he is quite the clumsy accident prone child. I should have recognized that their squeals of laughter got a little more high pitched after each bump. When I was asking them if they were allowed to use my floor for their sticker art they kept giggling. "Okay, what's so funny?" I asked, not really sure I wanted to know. They fell to the floor laughing as they told me. I had about 56 smiley faces on my butt. Do not worry, I will not freak you all out with another picture. You do not need a visual of my tush all decorated with stickers. I'm just grateful that they fessed up before the FedEx guy got there. My backside certainly doesn't need anything to bring attention to it, it's quite noticeable on it's own.