The Green Smurf

I know... the title sounds like a super hero. You know, like the title of a comic book... "The Revenge of the Green Smurf". Actually, it is nothing of the sort. We decided after we got settled back into our life here in Venezuela that we would paint the little wooden school desks that we had bought last summer. Each of the boys has one. So off we went to the hardware store to buy some paint. We selected 3 lovely shades of red, green, & yellow. We read the label carefully & even talked with the lady in that department explaining that we needed water based paint because our children would be using it & we needed to be able to clean them & anything that might get painted accidently in the process. She assured us we had the right stuff so we bought the paint & returned home. Chris & the boys spread out some plastic & painted for about 2 hours. I went to see their work & get Imanuel who was getting tired of the process. I tried to wipe his feet but the paint wouldn't come off. I figured that I needed more water & soap. I took a very GREEN Ian & a red footed Imanuel to the shower & scrubbed & scrubbed but nothing would come off. Ian told me it was the "Shower of Death" because I scrubbed so much.(ha ha) I questioned Chris again about the paint. By this time he was washing the brushes. The red & green paint were making a terrible mess. The yellow washed out fine. Needless to say... I was left with a clean Isaiah, A green smurf named Ian, & an Imanuel that looked like he had visited Lucille Ball for an epsiode of "I Love Lucy". You know, the one where Lucy & Ethel were smashing grapes with their feet??!! We re-read the label again, but it said that it was water based paint. I guess this proves that you can't choose a book by its cover... or in this case.... You can't choose the right paint by the label!