For Kayli and Andrea

Today I drug out the huge gallon-sized bag of half-melted crayons that I've had for the last two years--actually some of those crayons I've had since at least 6th grade if not earlier. They melted on the driveway in the bag the first summer we lived here. I don't throw art supplies away, even if they are just crayons because I figured I'd do something with them someday. And today was the day. Anyway, I dug them out of my craft box for the kids and then gave myself a huge blister making pink and red crayon shavings. We then melted them between wax paper, cut them into hearts and hung them up in our window for Valentine's Day. They look really cute, mostly because I only let the kids sit at the table while I did all the work. (Yes, this is why I don't do crafts with my kids more often.) Then I unwrapped the rest of the crayons and melted them down in my muffin tin to make these. Other than that, I babysat today, managed to exercise, changed the sheets on my bed, took the kids to the Bean museum where they petted a live python and Isabel fell on her head on a hard concrete floor, and went grocery shopping to Sam's Club where Isabel proclaimed that I was the "Best Mom Ever!" because I bought Edamame beans. Umm, yeah. And because I have Pinterest, but never use it, here's the link to the Crayon Hearts.

In other news, Kayli wanted to know what instruments I bought in Colombia. So here they are.

Some percussion instrument made from a gourd.
Native flute thing with cool design.
Ah no, freaky Scream face design on the other side.
12-stringed guitar.
Pan flute.
Maracas.
And what Leo calls our Voodoo Magic Rattle. In actual truth, he didn't remember the name of a single instrument except the maracas, although I know he's told me the names before.

Also for my dear sister Andrea who doesn't Facebook, here's a few recent posts:

Elena doesn't like the boy who I carpool every other week because she thinks he talks too much. So today she was really upset when I went to pick up Ana from school and she begged for me to just take her home "really quick." I told her no. So she hid under a blanket the entire time he was in the car. Ana and I were laughing so hard! When Ana asked her if she wanted a potato chip, she stuck out one hand, and that was it. What a goof.

At dinner tonight:
Elena, "What kind of meat is this?"
Me, "Steak, it comes from a cow."
Isabel (very loudly and enthusiastically) "This cow is YUMMY!!!!"

My two little girls are still awake and it's 11:30 at night. They are apparently putting on a play in their room, and Elena said to Leo that they couldn't possibly do it tomorrow because she might forget the lines. We went to see a short kid's version of the Merchant of Venice today at BYU and I think that's inspired all of this.

The other day instead of taking his nap, Sebastian crawled out of his crib and up on my shelf with all my crafting/sewing/pictures-needing-scrapbooking/etc on it and started destroying things. When I found him I said very sternly, "You are in BIG trouble!!!!" (I meant it too.) Then Sebastian said, "Otay, mommy." And then he was in significantly less trouble. How do little boys manage to so completely win over their mothers?