Vincent Van Go-To-Your-Room!

Hmmmm...where to begin?
OK - I'll keep it simple. Me making lunch. Kids in basement. Coloring. See pic to the right, from a few weeks ago, for how it should be done. That is, on the paper.

NOT. ON. THE. CARPET.

Oh yeah. You heard me. On the carpet. They colored the carpet. Which is possible. I didn't know that until today.
I knew it was too quiet down there, but did I check? Nooooo. I decided to remain blissfully ignorant. Which lasted all of about 7 minutes. Then the mac-n-cheese was ready and Andy and Andrea Warhol came upstairs. Q proclaims that Hey! Keira colored the carpet! What? Yeah, she did; really. Hmmmm...could she really do much damage in such a little time, I thought. Will crayons even write on carpet? As I'm contemplating this over a few seconds, K fires back an accusation of her own: Gege color too! Oh no, I foolishly say, he knows better; Quinn knows we color only on paper.
They traipse off to wash hands. We eat. Play outside a little afterward. Keira naps.

Then, I inspect the damage.

Yikes.

Not only did she color the carpet, but she colored about a 12x24 area. In orange and blue. And then a foot or so away, there's more. Not scribbles though, but well formed letters. Including a Q. Hmmmm....curious. I'm starting to see now why Quinn didn't rat out Keira right off the bat, as she was coloring (as he typically does for even the most minor infractions). No, not this time. He didn't have time to tattle...because he was too busy doing some coloring for himself! Arghh!
Initially he denies my accusations, insisting that Keira made the Q. And the A, too. Oh really? I say. She can barely make a circle, let alone a Q. And that is one mighty nice Q.
Before I have to get all Elliot Stabler on him (pop reference to one of my favorite prime time detectives!), he confesses to being the brown-crayon-bandit, but maintains that Keira told him to do it. Uh, yeah, right....since when do you listen to anything your 2-year old sister tells you?
So, once I have a straight story, more or less, I do what any mom worth her salt does: I leave it for daddy to witness when he comes home from work, and then equip all 3 with buckets and rags to clean it up. Yeah, that's right. Somehow I managed to get hubby to lead the kiddos in the clean-up effort, even though he had nothing to do with it. How about that? Some finesse, eh? I know, I know - one could argue that it was my negligence (um, make that misplaced trust) that led to this whole thing in the first place, but I certainly wasn't going to point that out.

In the end, the crayon came out of the carpet. The kids will be coloring upstairs for the next couple of days. And Quinn drew pictures of Princess Mommy and Princess Keira as a peace offering.

Now that's some art I can appreciate.