my oh my

Sunday night when I went into my bedroom to go to bed I noticed that the curtains on one of our bedroom windows were closed. Hmmmm. I've never once closed the curtains since I hung them but even though I noticed the slight change in room appearance I didn't think too much of it at the time. Monday, during the day, I was cleaning up around the house and opened the curtains back up...and what did I find???????? Two of the slats on our mini blinds were broken and dangling by the strings. Interesting. Since I know for a fact I didn't break the blinds and I'm fairly certain Brandon didn't do it I immidiately called for Maddox to come to mommy's room. I would have called for both of the boys except Ashtyn was at school at the time. Maddox came running into my room and as soon as he saw what I was looking at his whole countenance changed. He began glancing at the floor, glancing at me and giving me his "love eyes". That's a dead giveaway as a guilty look every time! I asked Maddox if he knew what happened to the blinds and he said no. Unfortunately, I knew FOR SURE he was lying and so I, once again, explained to him that lying is bad and that if he lies he will get into even more trouble then if he just tells the truth. After my "soapbox speech" Maddox changed his tune a bit and said, in a sheepish voice "I know what happened to the blinds..." I tried to coax out of him what had actually happaned until Maddox felt so guilty that he ran and hid under his bed. Good grief! After more lecturing, more talking, more coaxing, I eventually found out that Maddox had CUT THE BLINDS WITH SCISSORS!!!! Oh my!!!! Of course, he blamed his brother (which I didn't believe) so I just gave Maddox yet another talking to about why we don't use scissors without asking mommy and we went on with our day. Well...the story doesn't end there! When Ashtyn came home from school the boys were in my room watching a cartoon. The "mini blind incident" was the furthest thing from my mind. I had put it behind me. Until I came into my room to ask the boys what they wanted for a snack and saw something out of the corner of my eye. Hidden behind a picture frame on Brandon's nightside table were bakugan cards. Upon further inspection I found that these weren't just any bakugan cards...these bakugan cards had been cut in half!!!! What!?!? Sigh. I confronted the boys about the cards when suddenly Ashtyn gave himself up without a second thought! (He has such a guilty conscience. This is gonna work in my favor in the future...) Ashtyn explained that the day before he had gotten the scissors and cut a few bakugan cards in half. When Maddox walked in and saw what Ash was doing, Ashtyn then handed Maddox the scissors and told him he could cut some too! Maddox, though, didn't stop at just bakugan cards and moved onto bigger and better items to cut...like the blinds! Ha!! So, I guess Maddox was telling the truth after all!! Wow!! I guess, in the end, I wasn't happy about what the boys had done but it was also really funny too. I think it bothered me more that the boys had hidden what they had done then the fact that they had actually used the scissors themselves. I must say, though, the fact that we've made it to ages 7 and 4 without any other instances like this is AMAZING!!!! My kids have never colored on the walls, flooded a bathroom or even broken a trinket! Overall they do really well! So I guess this time they get a free pass and get off with just a lecture and a chuckle under my breath. We'll see what the future holds though. If they keep working as a team, I have a feeling it won't be long before they're WAY too good at hiding their bright ideas...