Crayola Crime

Today, we faced a challenge above and beyond the normal daily tasks of caring for the 4 crazies. We experienced a Crayola Crime. There are 4 suspects, but no confession. What exactly was the crime? One of the kids placed a blue crayon in their pocket, put said pocket into the laundry basket, there by allowing Daddy to place the crayon into the washing machine and finally, into the dryer. This resulted in the death of several towels and children's summer clothes. Someone in my household is a murderer of clothing, by way of negligence.

Instead of teaching homeschool this morning, I ended up sorting a load of laundry into piles- trash, crayon spots with possibility of salvage, and crayon-free. Then I made a nifty mix of Goo-gone and dish soap and proceeded to scrub the living daylights out of the spots of dark blue crayon on the items I thought we could save while being heckled by Fia saying "That's my FAVORITE shirt, save it Mommy!" about every single item of hers in the load. Moo, who lost the most in the load, was less worried and very excited about the new pack of underoos and shirts I promised her for replacements.

My husband spent the morning going to buy supplies to clean out the dryer and then scrubbing all the leftover crayon out of the dryer. Needless to say, he wasn't very pleased about spending his time cleaning the dryer, and I don't blame him. I believe he is committed to checking all pockets when running a load of laundry now, though!

Through the course of the inspection, I believe that Moo and Fia have the greatest chance of guilt, since they are the only 2 with pants or shirts with pockets in the load. My inclination is toward Moo being guilty, since Fia is such a neat-nick that I can't imagine her putting a crayon in her pocket instead of back into the box, into her school box, and finally into her desk. But, we have no hard evidence, so the Crayola Crime will most likely become a cold case, never to be resolved.