Leave them alone for FIVE minutes...

This pic is for Tara at Sticky Fingers' Gallery. This week the theme is Back to School.

Back to school, back to morning rush. So I left them at the breakfast table while I went to get ready for the school run. Uh-oh. What was I thinking?! This is the entire contents of a 1kg bag of muesli, plus a bag of oat bran.

From the bathroom, I could hear Small Boy saying "Don't waste it!" but then there was silence. Playing nicely, I thought.

Playing, yes. Nicely, no. This cereal volcano is what met my eyes on my return, accompanied by a smirking Small Girl (the instigator) and Small Boy (the accomplice). I was none too pleased, to put it mildly. I admit to being rather vocal (in fact the thought crossed my mind that the neighbours might wonder whether there was some kind of violent crime being committed).

They were both sent out of the room for five minutes of 'thinking time' on the stairs (they had to be separated to stop them giggling together), while I set about sweeping. Needless to say, we were then running late and had to rush, adding more stress to already fraught tempers. Not a great start to the school run routine. I wonder what my blood pressure went up to?

This was yesterday. Today we were up half an hour earlier, so that any unplanned morning mishaps could be dealt with calmly. It worked, all was sweetness and light. But we didn't have any muesli for breakfast, sadly.