Last Week...

It rained a ton!  This however, didn't stop the girls from going outside.

I gave Elena bangs.  I never cut bangs on Raquel when she was little.  I figured that at some point she was going to have to go through the "hair in you face" stage--that the baby is demonstrating so well in this picture--and I'd rather have her go through it when she was little and didn't care. 

But with Elena, I think bangs help frame her face rather well.  I might even go as far as saying that they give her some girlyness.

Mike told Raquel he'd give her 25 cents each time she washed the dishes.  She did them several times last week.  On Saturday when we were at Wal-Mart, she asked if we could stop by the toy section.  When we got there she started asking me how many quarters she needed to buy different toys.  I realized then, that she had brought the money she'd earned over the week...a little over a dollar.  After explaining that she was going to have to wash a ton more dishes before she earned enough money to buy any of those toys, she settled for a candy bar.  She was super excited to pay for it all on her own. Unfortunately, I think I may have destroyed any future efforts in washing dishes for the purpose of earning money to get a toy.

Speaking of dishes.  This is a common sight at our house.  I'm sure, if they could, these other two would pay me to let them wash the dishes.

I got some insight into why the baby's shirts are uncomprehensively soaked after eating...

Unlike me, she doesn't seem to have a problem with this.

Raquel learned about insects in her science class.  The girls made ants.

Here is Raquel's

and here is Elena's

Well, she got the 3 body parts, 6 legs, and 2 eyes part right.