'A messy room......'

This should be on my daughters' room... Honestly!

I know it's not all their fault, heck they're only 4 and 2.5 but really!

This morning we (yes Tyler and I) asked the girls to clean their room before coming upstairs for lunch.... You see we were having a lazy sleep in morning and just let the girls play in the big room (some who have followed the journey of our room changes in this house, the 'big room' is considered Emma and Zoë's room... Emma now sleeps in the guest room as the girls weren't sleeping enough.... *chat, chat, chat, giggle, chat*)...

Anyhoo, Tyler had to get up and get ready for work (night shift) while I started making some food for the girls... They were to be downstairs cleaning the room up as it looked like a tornado and a half had come through! Zoë of course snuck away and left Emma to do all the cleaning (this happens more often then I thought but every time Emma does an awesome job while Zoë says 'Thank you for cleaning my room Emma!')

WELL, the girls come upstairs, have a snack and say goodbye to Daddy.... Then, after pancakes and such, it was nap time. We do our normal nap time routine (washroom use, songs, prayer, bed) in Emma's room... Emma stays upstairs while I take Zoë to her bed....

ACK!

There were toys EVERYWHERE!

It was nuts!

And I was in shock!

Not very often does something take my breath away because of it being 'bad'...

So here I am, stuck with a dilemma... Do I get Emma's tiny butt downstairs to help clean up the mess before nap time begins, or do I have them do it after nap time?

Much thought went into this.... I went the 'after' route. Hopefully they would be happier after having some sleep (I know I would be after some peace and quiet) and get the job done right.

In the end they didn't end up cleaning up the room after their nap either... It wasn't until after we went out to dinner (they slept a bit longer then I planned) and back from Wal-Mart....

Then they were given 20 minuets to clean up the room. In the last 4 minuets I set the timer up so they could see the count down and then hear the 'beep, beep' when their time was up.

ANY toys left on the ground, or not in its correct spot, were going to be placed into the 'unknown bin'... This bin could mean they lose the toys forever (and a women's shelter gains some!) or they can work towards earning the toys inside back...

They didn't believe Mommy...

'Beep, Beep'....

'Clunk, clunk, clunk, bam!'

Oh yes, Mommy was serious.... 'She came downstairs with the bin!' is what I'm sure went through their cute little minds...

So I went around and picked up whatever toys had been stuffed under their beds not in the under bed storage containers...And whatever random ones were on the floor.

As of now Emma is heart broken that Zoë's Dora backpack ended up in 'the bin' (those words laced with total dread and fear)...

So I made a deal with her. If she can behave until after we get home from Church tomorrow, I will take the backpack out. Then we practiced 'Church' (sitting still with our arms crossed not making a single noise.... It was wonderful! *L* Zoë practiced too!).

I'll let you know how it goes... Maybe I won't get that 'Most Horrible Mom' award yet!