We had been kid-free for a week. Bill’s kids came back Sunday morning. I love them. I miss them desperately when they are gone. I absolutely cannot believe how quickly our life changes completely from one day to the next! They certainly keep us entertained!
Saturday Breakfast: Bill and I ate a leisurely breakfast at a quaint little restaurant in the Black Hills. We were maybe a little bored of looking at only each other’s faces for the last week.
Sunday Breakfast: Bill and I hastily acknowledged each other’s presence as we poured cereal, cleaned up spilled juice and tried to be heard over the banging piano – currently covered in syrup. It’s all worth it because everyone cleans their plates and Levi says, “Yummy Dody!”
Saturday Mid-Morning: Bill and I drove through the scenic Spearfish Canyon on our way home. I played Words with Friends on my new iphone and tried to figure out how to make all the apps work. We’ve driven about 2000 miles in the last week and we have run out of ways to entertain ourselves.
Sunday Mid-Morning: Manhattan Sister called my cell and wanted to talk to the kids. After 30 minutes, my home phone rang and it was Manhattan Brother-In-Law, calling to let me know that Gabby was still on the phone with Manhattan Sister and that they needed a translator…and something about poop. I located Gabby, who had inexplicably gotten dog poop on my iphone. ipoop – not a good app. And here I thought Bill bought me that fancy iphone case because he was worried I was going to run over it with my car! Meanwhile, the kids found a frog and were busy building it a jail house and suffocating it with feeding it grass.
Saturday Lunch: We stopped for Chinese food in a small town where Bill used to live. He said it was the best Chinese meal he’d ever eaten and was so glad to get to eat it again. I though there wasn’t anything too exciting about Chinese food in the middle of Wyoming, but I like it when he’s happy…
Sunday Lunch: Brianna and I decided to try to recreate the meal. We bought all kinds of ingredients we’d never heard of after googling the recipe. We spent 2 hours completely destroying the kitchen, had only one oil-splash burn (me) and only two broken dishes (her), and somehow managed to finish golden shrimp, fried rice and sweet and sour chicken all at the same time. Then we realized we hadn’t cleared the puzzle or scrapbook stuff we’d been working on off of the table, so we decided to eat lunch on a blanket in the living room. Chinese food + 4, 5 and 9 year olds + picnic= huge mess, but so much fun.
Saturday Afternoon: Bill and I arrived home to our clean house and took a nap.
Sunday Afternoon: We taught Levi how to vacuum. He said the vacuum was eating all the rice. We lost and then found the frog. In the kitchen.
Saturday Dinner: After discovering our empty refrigerator, Bill and I went out to dinner. I had two lovely drinks and a delicious salad.
Sunday Dinner: Hot dogs for them, wine for me. I’m not proud. We cleared the table this time.
Saturday Evening: Bill and I unpacked while watching our DVR’d TV shows from last week.
Sunday Evening: Gabriella announced that she wanted to make muffins for breakfast. It was 9:30pm. I couldn’t really think of a good reason why not, so we did. She wanted to do it all by herself. I thought that sounded really messy, but adorable. We recorded the “Gabriella Cooking Show.”
After that, we thought she’d fallen asleep on the couch, but when the timer buzzed, she came barreling into the kitchen. “My muffins!!!!!”
Saturday Night Time: Bill and I decided it was bedtime and wandered upstairs where we fell asleep in our own bed for the first time in a week. We didn’t wake up til the next morning.
Sunday Night Time: Bill and I wrestled three overtired children into bed (because we let them make muffins at bedtime…),convinced them that we couldn’t eat muffins at 11pm/didn’t need to take remote control cars to bed/the frog they caught today would be fine until the morning. Then we checked on the stupid frog and tried to go to sleep. We were awakened seven times by children who were afraid of the dark/thirsty/had wet the bed/were worried about the freaking frog.
You will be glad to know that as of Monday morning, the muffins had been eaten, the children (who were up all night) were already down for naps, and the frog, thank goodness, made it. We are exhausted, but happy. I will hold on to every second of chaos this week so that I can replay it in my mind (and my iphone) next week when the quiet takes over again.
Copyright © Jody Hoffman 2011
What an absolute wonderful mess! Funny how happy chaos can make us! Just blogged about some "happy" chaos on my blog just the other day.
Posted by: Wendy | 08/03/2011 at 10:31 AM
Family chaos is wonderful isn't it. Sometimes when it's too quiet and I have the house to myself, all I want in the world is to hear my son running around all over the place being silly and making a mess. :) It's music to my ears.
Posted by: Ria | 08/02/2011 at 03:24 PM