A Week of Five

My sister, Beth, is moving to Wisconsin in a little over a month.  It was a pretty sudden decision to move.  I fully support her, but man am I going to miss her family.  Beth brought her kids up for a visit to get a little respite and see family before the move.

The kids all had a great time.  My aunt, Molly, came for a visit as well as my brother, Tim.  My sister, Sally, took all three "big" kids to a Mariners game.  My parents took my niece and nephew on a trip to the zoo.  Additionally, my mom was here almost every day.  It's a good thing I like my family....

Originally, Beth planned to come up while her husband was spending time with his brothers.  This transformed into adding she and Chris leaving the kids with me so they could fly to Wisconsin and find a place to live.  Piece of cake, right? 

First part of epic babysitting was a trip to Volunteer Park.  We played on the playground, visited the Conservatory, walked through the park, climbed the water tower, and waded in the pool.  We waved to the cemetery, but did not enter.

The big kids pretended to be gargoyles outside the water tower.

 

My goal was to just run the kids ragged so they would sleep.  We played baseball and soccer outside the Richmond Beach library, one of my favorite parks.

 There was much silliness with costumes and bubbles.

Grocery shopping with two under 2 necessitates the dreaded car cart.  Robin insisted on being male and kept grabbing Gwen's steering wheel.

 I'm going to miss these two so much.

Linus was feeling creative and organized an auction, puppet show, and magic show all in one.  The kids were a pretty respectful audience.

 

Eileen's comment at the end of the show says it all.

 

The kids played hard.  We made bird ziplines, a plastic bag rocket, and craftstick puzzles.  There was much digging and many baths.  As I started to lose my steam, I took the big kids to the dollar movies.  By the end of our time together, serious baths were needed.  Eileen was so tired that she put herself to bed at 5:40 pm and missed epic bath time.

I learned this week to be grateful that I was only blessed with one child at a time.  Dear Lord managing two toddlers at a time is crazy making!  I haven't done that many dishes, cleaned up that many spills, put away that many toys, read that many books, or functioned on so little sleep. I'm eternally grateful to my mom for all the pitching in she did to help manage them all.  This morning I awoke relieved that I only had to care for three kids and then proceeded to clean the whole house top to bottom.  I finished my day with a girls night out and a glass of sangria.  All is right in the world.