School's out for summer. That means these girls gotta start earning their keep.
There are two things you need to know about this post.

One: Last year, I dreamed up a fake homeschool/slave labor scheme that kept me from turning into a monster who always screamed at her children and counted down the minutes until the school year started again... more than I already am at least. What that turned into was a way for me to get them to do stuff around the house. Because I am the smartest woman alive.

Two: Back in February, we decided that it'd be a good investment in our house to turn the half bath in the basement into a full bath. The Dormouse has had a great time feeling important and helping Daddy and she may be just a little too excited to participate in the demolition portion of the project but at some point in a project like this, you move past the place at which a six year old can help. The KingofHearts has been working on it in his spare time since then. He thinks I'm upset by the time it's taken to finish this project, but methinks the lady doth protest too much. The truth is, I don't really care that much. He's got limited time to spend on it and his priority is to hang with the girls when they're home. I think that's just fine... preferable, even. But The KnaveofHearts will be here in a few weeks and I'm pretty sure he'd like a bed to sleep in - a bed that right now has a toilet, pieces of a shower stall and several large sheets of drywall stacked on it. He's a little too old for a teddy bear, but encouraging him to sleep with power tools might be going a little too far in the other direction.

The plumbing and drywall were finished a couple of weeks ago and he had the room all ready to paint. So The KoH decided that before putting any of the fixtures or the floor in, he would strip the ankle biters down to their underwear, cover them with plastic bags and let them paint the fence, so to speak. And though it looks like child labor, I'm going with "it's a foundational skill exercise." Some day these lessons will come in handy and they'll use these skills to defeat the high school bully in a karate tournament and teach him an important, but poignant life lesson about bullying and humility.

Or maybe just how to dress in rags to panhandle on downtown D.C. streets.
Surprisingly, they don't make plastic trash bag in little girl size, so we had to modify this one's.
We had a quick tutorial on how to use the roller,
and they were off.
The Caterpillar turned a critical eye to the project.
But who's really going to listen to the girl who paints her feet?
So there you go. More proof that having children can benefit you. You just have to know how to use them to your advantage.

Before:

After: