Theory of Relativity

Here's how the theory of relativity works with kids.  When you've been taking care of FIVE kids all day long every day, suddenly having only TWO kids to take care of is a PIECE. OF. CAKE.  Today was day 1 of Summer School and I don't know who was more excited about it -- me or the kids.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning with how early they woke up today and how long it took them to settle down and go to sleep last night!  Breakfast was eaten and clothes were put on in record time and we even managed to squeeze Scripture Time in before we headed out the door.  AND summer school starts at 8 AM which is a full hour and five minutes EARLIER than regular school!

 Poor little Jane.  She really wanted to go to summer school, too.  She cried like her heart was broken when we dropped the big kids off and drove away.  I think she thought she was going, too.

 

 Grace's grumpy face lasted only a few minutes before school, but then returned again and again with vengeance over the course of the afternoon and evening.

After dropping the older ones off at school, I headed on over to the gym with the little ones to get my workout on for the day.  Let me just state for the record that this may have been the most perfectly ideal morning of my LIFE.  Herding only 2 kids into the tot care?  Easy.  Getting my exercise done first thing in the morning?  Peasy.  Getting home just in time for Alex to take his nap and then taking a leisurely shower, getting dressed and blow drying my hair while Jane watched an episode (or two) of Bubble Guppies?  Lemon Squeezy.  I'm telling you folks, EVERYTHING is relative.  This wouldn't seem nearly so luxurious if it weren't usually so difficult to accomplish with all 5 kids underfoot!

To finish our perfect morning off, I decided to be super mom and created an impromptu "Mom and Jane School" to do with the Sugar Pop while we had some one-on-one time while Alex was still napping.  That cute little girl LOVED it.  It's so nice when they're still so easy to please.  Hahahahaha.  We sang a few songs, colored in a notebook, and then I let her make a necklace out of beads in all the colors of the rainbow.  I was kind of impressed that she actually got the hang of it enough to do on her own. 

 Look at that concentration!

 Stringing them along.

Midway through our festivities, lover boy woke up and I fed him before letting him loose and returning to help Jane.  The little puppy dog headed straight for the kitchen where we were working and proceeded to clean the floor of crumbs for us.  I figured I should probably throw him a {figurative} bone and got him a couple of real crackers to eat while we watched Jane do her beading for a few more minutes and then headed on out to get the kids.

Cute little billy goat.

I'd love to say that the rest of the day was as perfect as the morning, but rest assured it was NOT.  After picking the kids up and hearing them rave about how much they LOVED summer school, we came home and fixed some lunch.  In theory the next thing on the schedule was Nap Time (for the little ones) and Quiet Reading Time (for the older ones).  In actuality, Ethan was the only one who read anything, Grace threw a couple of fits about not liking to read, the girls kept going in and out of the house and then up and down the stairs until I finally snapped and told them to just go outside and play in the kiddie pool.  Jane was crying and banging at her bedroom door at this point, so I let her out and sent her down.  ALEX was still crying, too, so I got him out and tried rocking him for a bit before putting him back down, and he probably would have gone to sleep if it weren't for the kids STILL coming in and out of the house and up and down the stairs and yelling and fighting and creating all kinds of noises that effectively prevented ANY kind of peace and quiet.  After listening to that poor little lamb crying his heart out for almost an hour I finally had to rescue my little lover boy and bring him down as well.

It was at this point that I realized I was not going to make it through the afternoon if we didn't all get out of the house.  The library was our scheduled "Afternoon Activity" for the day, so I took the kids on over and met up with Natalie and her kids.  {Being with friends ALWAYS makes a day better.}  After disturbing the peace at the library for a good 20-30 minutes we then headed over to Sonic to get a treat before heading home.  While there we watched as the sky slowly but surely opened up and began pouring down.  It started slow and steady but then picked up in speed and strength until it finally reached torrential proportions and actually started to hail on us as we were loading up and getting ready to go home.  The kids thought this was the coolest thing ever.  I did not.  Fortunately we made it home safely and the festivities continued on.

Or not.  Definitely not, actually.  Because now it was time for the kids to get their chores done while I made dinner and that didn't really happen.  What happened instead was a lot of running around and freaking out by Grace, melt downs galore from an over-tired Jane, and a fussy little lover boy who never did get an afternoon nap.  Ethan -- to his credit -- did get his chores done, and so did Sophie {I think}.  But the overall atmosphere of the evening was pure chaos.  I think we just attract it.  

Luckily the kids went down okay at bedtime even if Jane DID have to come down for a breathing treatment.  All-in-all, I'm glad this day is over. Tomorrow will be brighter -- at least for the morning.  Hahahaha.