{pom poms and such}

Tate especially loves to do Maizie's hair, which is somewhat of a challenge with her spunky attitude, but I caught him chasing her around one morning trying to get her hair sprayed and combed. So cute!

Jacob has had his eye on this Mr. Freeze toy since last Christmas and I keep reminding him that he can ask for it on his birthday (which is Nov. 8th, pretty close to Dec, so he's been waiting almost a year!) Then at Wal-Mart he said to me "Can I earn it?" and I said "Sure!" The boys have both done pom pom jars for a couple years, but we hadn't done it all summer so I was happy to have a good motivation for them to get back into the swing of things. So here are their awards sitting on top of the fridge where they can see them, like they could forget!!

They wanted to start earning pom poms the second we got out of the store, so we got home and I put them to work. First they cleaned their disastrous room. Then they pulled off all their sheets and pillowcases and took them to the laundry room. Then Jacob picked up all of the toys and bikes in the yard and put them away. Keep in mind that I check everything they do and it has to be done to my expectation (while remembering that they are 3 and 4!). Then Jacob was still bugging me to earn more pom poms and all the little stuff had been done, so I told them both they could help me fold laundry. (I was kind of choking inside on this one because I rarely ask my husband to help me fold laundry because I like it folded nicely!) So I gave them each a spot on the couch and a pile of their own clothes showed them how to do it. Jacob picked up on it immediately and smoothed everything out how I wanted and did it really nicely! Tate took a little longer to get it right but he got good at it by the end and then they put it all in their drawers, which they are already used to doing. HOLY COW! My 3 and 4 year old just folded all their laundry and actually cut down my folding time by a lot!! I couldn't believe how good they did (I should've taken a picture but I was in shock!) and of course they got their pom poms.

Marcus was surprised when I told him what they did (he knows how I like my laundry!) and I told him they did great! To which he responded "I was never taught how to fold laundry." I'll have to ask his mother about that one... But anyway I'm proud of how hard they are working to earn their reward and believe me they are going to earn every penny of it!!