Okay, summer is drawing to a close, and I think my girls and I have finally reached the point where we are ready for a return to structure – as boring and tedious as that sounds. But I wanted to show off my sweeties in a post dedicated to them and how much they bless my life. Two anecdotes:

1) Campbell (3 yrs) – A couple of days ago the three of us poured candle wax into cold water to watch it harden quickly. After it had completely hardened, I allowed both girls to play with the wax. Well, much to my dismay, they crumbled it into 7000 tiny pieces of wax (they were making dog food, they explained). I then informed them that all of the wax had to be cleaned up and thrown away. They handled that news okay and began to dispose of the wax. Only thing is, they weren’t disposing of it properly. They were, at Carson’s leading, dropping the wax down the air conditioner vent. Had my six year-old lost her noodle? She knew, without a doubt, that was unacceptable and I punished her. Right or wrong, I only punished her because she led the bandwagon of disobedience. This absolutely floored Campbell. She asked me if I was going to give her a spanking, and I said I was not. She sat over in her little pink chair in her little playhouse in the kitchen and just pondered that. And then, after mulling over this event a few moments, she busted out with one of the cutest things I think she has ever said. “Momma, you wanna know what (kinda drawn out)? I think you are berry smart for not givin’ me any spankin’s.”

2) Carson (6 yrs) – Carson is elated to be returning to school; she loves it! We had registration at school yesterday, and she wanted to get there as soon as it began to find out who her teacher will be. The night before she set out her clothes, shoes, new bookbag (which she insisted on carrying) and even put toothpaste on her toothbrush for the morning. She wanted to get ready in a flash to get to that school (I am so proud of my lil’ student). When preparing her bookbag, she announced that she wanted to give $1 to her principal to use on buying stuff for school. She taped a note on the dollar that read I love my school and stuck it in a pocket on her bag. So, as we were making our way to the registration room, her principal came tearing down the hall carrying a flower arrangement. Carson stopped her, explained what she wanted to do, and gave her the money. I thought that was too cool for school!