Regrouping

On Thursday morning, my House Beautification plans were completely derailed by a little tornado {of emotion} we like to call Grace.

Who me?

You see, all those late nights for Grace make it REALLY difficult to get her up in the morning.  On most days, she is the last one up.  On Wednesday night she must have been up even later than usual, because on Thursday morning I could not get her to move at all.  Starting an hour before we had to leave for school, I began the process of waking her up, but got NOWHERE.  Once she finally woke up, she wouldn't GET up.  "I'm too tired," she proclaimed.  "I can't move."  Knowing we were going to be late -- once again -- I became more and more frustrated as she refused to even get up much less eat breakfast, get dressed, or go to school.  I finally had to leave her behind to get Sophie to school before she was even MORE late {Ethan had gone early for choir practice} but I let her know as I left that there would be major consequences for her actions for the morning starting with me taking away her bean bag chair {which she sleeps on, on the floor every single night}.

Literally stuffing that giant bean bag chair in the front seat of the car, I took off for the school leaving Grace behind, upset and eating her breakfast in our wake.  And still refusing to go to school. After dropping Sophie off and coming right back home, I found Grace still resolute in her insistence that she was too tired and was not going to school.  After letting her know that she would be staying in her room for the entire day if she didn't go, I gave her one more chance to choose the right and she blew it. The rest of my day was spent policing her in her room, dragging her back up there when she busted loose, and finally just setting up camp outside her door after she picked her lock with a bobby pin one too many times.  Not my most productive day.

The basement clearly did not get cleaned on Thursday and even though I had a second day scheduled for cleaning it on Friday it still did not get completely done.  On Saturday morning, the children were given the directive to finish it up as a Saturday chore, but that didn't happen either.  I had to leave for a Relief Society meeting in the morning and by the time I got back at noon I decided it was time to give up on that pipe dream for the day and just take a break from all the work.  Making children do chores being the biggest work of all.

I picked up my friend's kids for the afternoon and what ensued afterward was unadulterated fun.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing my kids do crazy and creative things that DON'T involve electronics!  Hahaha. Vaulting over the couch, playing ice hockey on the counter, riding down the hill outside -- my kids had more fun in one afternoon than they've probably had all week.  

The arm of the couch was the vault, of course.

Running full speed ahead...

And landing with a somersault!

Cute little Louisa was busy playing Barbie in her own little world while the vaulting couch was happening right next to her.

Ethan was the brainchild behind the ice hockey concept.  After freezing a cup of water and using the ice as a puck, the kids gathered around the kitchen island for a cold and wet game of fun.

Setting up their arena.

The mastermind in action.

Grace and Preston.

There's the ice!

Everyone had to gather 'round and see what was happening.

Everyone that is but the munchkin delegation.  Hahaha.  Louisa once again found her own thing to do and started building castles with the blocks.

Meanwhile Alex sat on the floor right next to her trying to eat the play food before starting their very own "food" fight.  It was hilarious and they were loving it -- plastic food flying everywhere!

It was such a lovely day, that we eventually made our way outside and the kids played for a good long while out in the sunshine as our day drew to its end.  The girls rode kiddie bikes down the hill of a sidewalk in front of our house while Ethan got to kick around a ball with some other boys for a change!  It was hilarious seeing them all in action.

Grace kept giving the little kids rides on the back of her bike down the hill.  Jane was the only one who took repeated advantage of that offer.

That broken leg of hers didn't slow her down one bit!

Do you like the way Jane has a death grip around Grace as they ride down?  Hahaha.

Hahahahaha.  This picture absolutely kills me.  Look at their faces!  Especially Jane's!  Hahahaha.

Cute little lover boy took his turn as well.

And that was that.  After bringing our friend's home, we ended our day with the weirdest batch of pizza we've ever made.  Hahaha.  I don't know what in the world happened to the dough, but it's like it didn't rise at all.  I'll blame it on the store bought whole wheat flour.  I usually grind our own, but we've been out so I used this in a pinch.  

Seriously.  Look how FLAT it is!  So weird.

Once the kids were in bed, Scott and I had a fun "Date Night In" cleaning up the rest of the basement and making it look perfecto.  Hahaha.  Fun indeed.  But it is done!  And you know what?  We'll STILL be on schedule with what I have planned for the rest of the week {and month} on the calendar.  In the end, that forced day of rest on Thursday didn't ruin anything at all!  

{And for the record, Grace hasn't given us any other sleep-related problems since the previously mentioned incident.  Between taking away the bean bag -- so that she's forced to actually sleep all night in a BED -- and giving her the ultimatum that if she pulls another skipping school stunt like that again we'll be taking away the rocking chair in our room and making her actually fall ASLEEP in said bed, too, well, Grace has been the ultimate in compliance.  We'll see how long that lasts...}