The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

There was a lot of discussion yesterday after school. A lot of it had to do with me getting Kyle up to speed as to why Brenley was grounded from her iPad for the day. A full day.  (And I wasn't about to go through the play-one-parent-off-the-other game!)

Anywhoo... Brenley pipes up,

"Yeah! Well you treat me differently than the other kids in class!"

"No, I don't. When you're not paying attention or up and about out of your seat, I call you out on it just as I would anyone else in the class... Would you have done that last year?"

"... no..."

"The year before that? .... the year before THAT?!..."

Brenley retorted with the utmost disdain,

"... well, it's not my fault this is the year the butterfly decided to break free from her cocoon!"

To which, Kyle and I both rolled our eyes...
"Spare me!" Kyle said.

Then I noticed a snapchat coming in on the ipad & I may have threatened to read it, which totally put vinegar in Brenley's wounds and she stormed off to her room and slammed the door.

Little Mr. I-Love-When-My-Sister-Is-In-Trouble starts to sing from side stage:

"Butterfly fly away..."

Then as we're laughing, Madden says,

"WHA? Butterflies fly out of their racoons!"

Oh we laughed!

A little activist... looking for change

Hi, my name is Brenley Gillis. I am 8 years old and from Nova Scotia, Canada (where Sidney Crosby is from.) My mom, Dawn, is helping me write this letter to you.

Since January our family has bought 2 different Bleacher Creatures as gifts for my little brother & cousin. We've spent lots of time looking at your website & searching for the right guy to buy in stores around here. While I liked to buy these as gifts, I was really disappointed that there are NO female hockey players represented in your items. None. As a young Canadian girl, following Team Canada's female team is part of my life. Hayley Wickheiser's name & number are common speak among me, my friends and classmates.

Hockey is getting really popular with girls my age, girls younger and girls older. Also, guess what? Girls like to play with dolls, collect them, etc. I think you're really missing the mark by not having female hockey players in your collection.

How about some recognition for our great female hockey players? I guarantee I would buy one, and I'm pretty sure I can think of a number of girls who would love to have a female hockey player Bleacher Creature in their collections.

Please consider this for the future.

I hope you take the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

Brenley Gillis

Maybe she needs some soap in her mouth?!?!?

A Dawn detergent commercial comes on TV. Brenley as sharp as ever looks over at me and, in her words, (Little Miss Tongue in Cheek) she says,

 "I don't know why they don't call that 'Kyle' because mom's not that good to clean!"

Then this was on the counter the next morning...