Please, meet our "conemen".

Lately, all Ivana wants to do are the "projects"! Her favorite book now is "365 Things to Make and Do" by Vivienne Bolton that I've bought in "Michael's". The projects that are gathered in this book are very simple and easy to do for a girl who is almost 5. She does need my help, occasionally, but most of the time she takes the initiative and gets busy with doing whatever she feels like doing.

Of course, Leona is right there to bother her and wants to do the same thing as her big sister. So I have to stop whatever I was doing (like tiding up, putting the laundry away, etc) and get to help Leona. I felt that I've been telling them to wait with the projets, that was not the right time for mommy at the moment quite often. And then I've decided to review my priorities and change my attitude. I do spend a lot of time with them every day playing, reading, going to the park, doing different projects. But sometimes I did not let them play with the clay or playdough because I did not feel like cleaning the mess afterwards, or I would forbid them to cut the construction paper into million little pieces because we'd just vacuumed, or did not let them paint because once again I was in no mood to deal with the cleaning part. Some days are better, some are worse, especially taking into consideration that I have to go to work from 7 to 10 pm, teaching ESL my Brazilian students. So every day I have to make sure I have saved a tiny bit of energy for the evening, and some days I simply have to kick myself out of the door to go to work, that how exhausted I feel.

Anyway, I'm doing much better (or so I think) with giving the girls more freedom to do what they feel like doing. I simply have changed my approach to dealing with cleaning up after, I try to prevent the mess as much as I can. If they want to paint or play with the clay, I cover the table with a big black plastic bag and ask them to wear their craft aprons. It does not look too aesthetic, but saves me time cleaning up. If they want to use the scissors, I ask them to do it in the kitchen, and after they are done they sweep the floor. Easy as that! Why did I not think of it before? They are so eager to help to clean, that I even let Ivana wash the dishes when they are not greasy, and she knows not to wash the knives.

"The conemen" were from our heads, not the book. We had some cones that we had collected in one of the local parks. We had a couple of caps put aside from the milk cartons and beer (!), some yarn for the hair, colored paper, glue gun and ,of course, the wiggly eyes. "The conemen" are Ivana, Leona, Mommy and Tata (that's how they call Daddy in Czech).

The girls had so much fun playing with them and the house we've made before, that cooking dinner was a pleasure. The time I spend with our kids, the smiles I get to see on their cute little faces, the laughs I hear while they are playing with something that a while ago was just a bunch of "stuff", the pure joy of watching them while I'm doing my chores, all these experiences are simply irreplaceable! Every day when I come home from work I kiss our little angels and look forward to spending another day of our lives together.