Painting and Pickles

The past couple days have been interesting. As proof, I present to you this picture:

Do you know what these are? My children invented pickle popsicles. And they even included a bit of pickle juice with the water they put the pickle in. They were shocked to discover that they weren't very tasty...

All three of the kids did eat theirs, grimace and all. I think we should stick to carrots, strawberries and apples, eh?

And then the painting fun of yesterday. So I finished my school room. The red paint did go on eventually, five coats later and it does look great. BUT. I peeled the tape off the edges... and the paint came off the yellow walls with the tape and the red latex paint RIPPED off the walls. In some places, I cut it from the edge of the tape and smoothed it back down. Pathetic! Aggravation! Painting stinks! I'll prove it:

I'm not sure what words of comfort could possibly cheer me up, but I do have a sister coming to visit, and maybe SHE can fix this! Here's a backed up shot...

And maybe I'll post a video if I decide to fix the wall. Otherwise, I shall leave it looking horrible until it's learned it's lesson. And that could take it awhile.

Yesterday, I was making the Pioneer Woman's evil and deadly chocolate texas sheet cake, which can be found here. And I took a quick break as the cake was baking to peel the tape off the walls. When I came back from that frustrating quickie, I opened a new can of cocoa powder. Now, at almost 7,000 feet, you have to be careful how you open things that are sealed at much lower altitudes. So, not being an idiot or uninformed, I carefully, oh, so gently peeled back the sealed foil. Just as it opened the teeniest hole, WHOOSH!!! Cocoa powder everywhere. See the cabinet behind me? It went up on that, and up on the wall behind it almost to the ceiling. And we have 10ft ceilings in the living/dining area. There were chocolatey brown footprints all over, and if you want to know about wrinkles around your eyes and neck, just choose cocoa powder. The upside? When I went to wash my hair, it smelled like chocolate. =) For real! In fact, I didn't even know why at first and went sniffing around for the wonderful smell.
The other upside to the last few days was this:

And this:

I love to watch them out my kitchen window while I make dinner and see their smiles and hear their laughter. Makes a Mom so happy!

And then there were the helpers. Any job that involves a spray bottle is everyone's favorite chore. The kids got no reward for this, nor were they forced into it. The spray bottle is reward in and of itself.

Julia and Aidan cleaned the window for about half an hour and I can't say that the window improved in it's clarity, but I think it is less dirty and dusty!

And to finish, here's a couple pictures of my kitchen which, along with the living room, was my first and easiest painting project. So these rooms were the first to get a face lift. It seems to get worse each room we do...

So there you have the last few days here... A goodbye party for Marian tomorrow, a weekend and then we'll see about starting school. =) Woohoo!