violet red

for some reason, THE color of crayon to get at preschool is violet red. too bad they can't figure out for themselves when they've got it or not : )

sometimes they each get their own little cup with fat (for little fingers) crayons that are only in the main rainbow colors + brown and black. think like a beautiful box of crayola markers (ok, before they added pink and grey to the box). it's not really that much of a hassle to distribute, because each of the cups is a different color, and they all have a color of the day, so they match. sometimes i get tired of those little cups, or i think it might be nice for them to be able to use other colors aside from the big 8, so i just set out the baskets of regular sized crayons that come in just about every color.

once the skinny crayon baskets have come out, they start digging frantically and shouting, "hey! i have violet red!" they make sure their friends know, and then get on with their coloring. sometimes they like some validation so they'll ask me if "that says violet red." they hold it very carefully so i can read the part that says CRAYOLA or ROSEART. i usually say something like, well let me see and twist it a little so i really can read it. sometimes i can give them the confirmation they want and say, yep, you have violet red! but usually i say, nope, that just says red. they're a little disappointed, but it colors the same as it did before they asked so they usually just move on.

thanks a lot crayola, because sometimes i tell them that that have red violet. there is no difference to a 4 year old!

what else aids in their confusion? the fact that we also have violet blue and blue violet out there!

so the odds of getting a crayon with violet somewhere in the name is higher than you might think. it has lead to questions such as:

is this violet green? is this violet pink? is this violet purple? and so on.....

i'm not sure how many of them say violet. i think it's usually biolet. regardless, they REALLY want violet red. i'd rather hear about violet red than some other things we could get stuck on. i think i'm pretty lucky.

now that you know the violet red background, here is a short story:

one day they had scrambled for their crayons and while the boys are already coloring, my two girls have this discussion (not exactly the same words...this happened a few weeks ago): hey kylie do you have violet red? yeah. me too. let's see if they're the same. ok. do you have a r first? yeah. then a o? yeah. then a s? yeah then a e? yeah. then a a? yeah. then a r? yeah. then a t? yeah! we both have violet red!!!! (beside themselves with joy)

i just about died. that was one of my favorite moments. the thrill of a roseart crayon... : ) i can't stand coloring with roseart ones.

just this week carson has also adopted a love for orchid. he gets a look like he's getting an ice cream cone when i tell him he has orchid.

i hope this lasts until may : )