The Purge

In preparation for a big delivery (more on that later), we HAD to clean our basement this weekend.  I had been procrastinating for weeks because the basement scares me.  Not because of spiders or darkness or anything like that.  I never go down there because of all the toys that are always scattered everywhere.  I hate seeing the mess (which is why we keep the majority of the toys down there--out os sight, out of mind!).  Carter and I both knew we have way too many toys and that it was time to get rid of a bunch of them.  We gathered everything in the center of the room and started to sort.  Carter nicknamed this The Purge, and I do believe it was worse than the toxic gas attack that wiped out the DHARMA Initiative for which it was named.  We had to get a picture of the unbelievable mess:

See?  Way too much.  There's no way four little girls can manage to clean up after themselves with that much to deal with.  We managed to toss a bunch of damaged and dirty stuff.  The rest we donated to DI.  You would not believe how many tears can be shed over McDonald's Happy Meal toys and Dollar Store junk.  It was like I was throwing out their baby pictures and left arms.  It took a long time and I pretty much hated every second.  But we got it organized and put away in the end.  And we made room for (drum roll, please):

A Piano!  Yay!  Carter's grandmother gifted hers to us when she moved.  It arrived today and everyone is pretty excited.

Pipes and Sadie dancing to the Peanuts Theme that Carter is playing

So The Purge was worth it.  And really, it wasn't even the worst thing I did this weekend (cleaning up after Sadie's potty training accidents gets the prize for that, thank you very much).  Plus, no Others showed up!