Smashing!

Yes, it's been one of those days. Typical when you have young boys, the kind where you hear yourself saying the same thing over and over again, things like " NO! Not there, do not play there, it is not a place to play...cars on the floor please....the mantle is not a good place for toys!" or "What are you doing up there? Get down!!! How dangerous! What are you thinking??" and yet, even though you say these things again and again, no-one hears, just you, your own voice echoing in a wasted and hopeless fashion.
Take for instance, the mantle, the one behind Elvis , I mean Elijah in the picture.



Yes that one that has a line of Egyptian Gods on it, placed there by Seth because he likes to look at this collection and arrange them and rearrange them and bring them back down from his room ( where the tidy up fairies put them during the night) and puts them back here in front of that big picture with the GLASS frame, that is not hanging on the wall yet, we have only been here 4 months and I haven't actually said out loud to H " can you hang that picture please" because I am too busy saying "don't play on the mantle do you want that picture to fall on your head?" So it hasn't been hung yet.
Very early this morning, while my head was pounding and I was wishing that I was still asleep, I began the get away from the mantle conversation, the mailman brought an exciting parcel today, a big box filled with the most glorious collection of HORRIBLE HISTORY magazines, time lines, and a box so stuffed with info cards that Isaac's eyes almost popped out of his head. An Ebay find of such wonder that we were shaking with excitement ( me because a whole hour passed with little boys reading history books, in silence) However, the tin filled with cards brought a unanimous response from Seth, Isaac and myself.... " Elijah must never get his hands on this tin" we said. We must be careful to keep this where that boy can not get it and pull all these millions of cards out, they are all in order, which pleases us, to find them spread all over the house would be very sad, we must avoid that at all costs.
So...Isaac, in his lack of wisdom put the tin on the mantle and to make sure Eli the card tipper outer could not reach them, he pushed them, hard..to the back of the shelf and I think I have never heard a sound like that picture crashing onto his head, in my life. It all happened to slowly I may have had time to grab my camera and snap a shot of the glass smashing and the look of abject horror on Isaac's face , but I didn't of course. So that was how the day began and it carried on pretty much like that, all day, all the live long day.
Like when they were playing in our tiny little back yard, at the back of the house and yet...they kept coming in the FRONT door..how so? What on earth? Hmmm, bizarre. Eventually, of course, because I am a great mother, I went to see how this was happening. Shall I show you??

Ooh Ladder


Hmmmmm, quite a steep drop there, over the other side, onto the ROAD...into the NEXT STREET



but never mind, that adds to the excitement and dare devilment of it all... over we go!



And then they were running UP the hill of the next street and down our hill and in the front door...see? Easy peasy!
Little gits.
I put a stop to their shenanigans quick sharp and the ladder is now up on the roof where H and I ( and burglars) can reach it. Tomorrow if I remember, I will go to the next street and take pictures of the other side of that wall, so you can see how far they jump down to get to the ROAD......Sophie climbs over that wall the other way to get IN when we are out and lock the door, don't even ask how she gets into the house....actually the one time we left the back door open because we didn't think anyone would ever climb that wall and if they did all the neighbours would run and arrest any intruders on our behalf, so that's that and we lock the door now, always, in a particularly paranoid way, not that we have too much to steal but we do have a few laptops with precious pictures on and camera or 4, also insurance which is very grown up and necessary.
The gitlets went to bed without dessert this evening, no ice cream with a flake because as laid back as I am about boys being boys, climbing over walls onto roads is not a thing we can allow to pass unpunished and no ice cream hurts so much more than a good wallopping.
So, all are asleep and the house is quiet, we have a house inspection for the Landlord on thursday, which will be fun because no school, little boys, mess, rain, boredom....you can imagine can't you? Oh well, I'm sure they will see that somewhere the house is alright, its all surface clutter, Egyptian Gods and the like......all in a day's work. Smashing.