Dishes or Perler Beads…

I had the grandkids here lots last week.

Both Kelli’s and Kalissa’s kids were here on Monday and Friday. Thursday, we had just Kalissa’s boys. It was a busy week. Kelli has three kids, Georgia, Eli, and Emmett. Kalissa has three as well, Carver, Gannon, and Anders.

For the most part, everyone gets along pretty well. In general, Carver and Georgia are the instigators. Emmett is the pouter. Eli prefers the adults. Anders goes with the flow, and Gannon can be a bit of a loner. By far, Gannon has the longest attention span. When he gets into playing something, he’s into it. The kids can all start playing something. Everyone else will be tired and onto something else, but Gannon will stay playing.

That was what happened on Thursday with Perler Beads. If you aren’t familiar with them, they look like this. There are beads that you place onto a board, and then after you’re done placing them, you put parchment paper over the top and iron them. The beads melt and fuse together. The kids can then keep the design they made.

It is extremely time-consuming. The kids seem to love them. They often ask if they can play. If you’re interested, you can find them HERE on Amazon. You can also google “Perler Bead Designs” and can get patterns to make all sorts of designs. This is a good skill for pre-cross stitch.

Anyway…the kids were done playing except for Gannon. He had picked a butterfly to make. He was about half done…wanted to quit…but wanted to finish. Several times, he asked Kalissa and me if we would finish it for him. It was the end of a long day with the kids for me, and I didn’t feel like it. Kalissa had just woken from sleeping all day. The night before, she had worked the overnight shift. She didn’t want to either.

We both put Gannon off.

Gannon was persistent. He asked again. Kalissa said no. I said I couldn’t. I had to do the dishes.

Gannon would not let up. He asked again. Kalissa said no. I said I would if he would do the dishes. I knew there was no way he would do dishes. WRONG! He said, “SURE”. Then he jumped up and ran to the dishwasher. Oh my. It looks like I would have to keep my word.

So…Gannon did dishes (Kalissa had to help him, HA!)

…and I did Perler Beads.

The butterfly was big. He got the dishes done before I got the butterfly done. He came over and said, “I’ll finish it Grandma.”

We ended up getting it ironed, and he took it home before I could get a picture.

Looking back, I can’t help but chuckle. I was so sure he wouldn’t want to do dishes!! Here’s another funny on me. He didn’t load the dishwasher nearly as tight as I do. I ended up having to wash the dishes that didn’t get in the dishwasher by hand. HA!!

It’s all good. It’s just a little reminder to myself not to say something to kiddos that I don’t want to follow through with.

It was a good laugh for both Kalissa and me.