Father's Day?

Father's Day 2013

Well, folks, in an effort to keep it real and to make all of you feel much, much better about your OWN children and the way they celebrated Father's Day, allow me to recap this very special day for you.  We started the day inauspiciously enough by making it to church not just on time, but 30 minutes early for  Scott to meet up with 3 other dads before church so they could practice one last time for their part in the Primary children's musical number during sacrament meeting today.   {And yes -- that IS one terrifically ran-on sentence.}  Breakfast in bed did not happen with such an early wake-up call, but thankfully Scott is SUPER easy to please and my meager offering of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese did the trick as he quickly scarfed it down before heading out the door.  Hahaha.

As the fill-in Primary piano player, I had to be there this morning as well to help them with the accompaniment and since Ethan can't drive, all 5 kiddos got to tag-along, too.   In hindsight, it's possible that being at church for half an hour before it even started is what led to {or at least contributed to} the downward spiral that became sacrament meeting and then permeated throughout the rest of the day.  

{This is how we were feeling on the inside during church today.}

Problem number one was that we sat WAY too close to the front of the chapel.  That was my fault.  I'll own it.  The only thing I was thinking when I chose the pew was that it was closer to the stand and thus the piano for when it was time for the kids to sing and me to play.  I clearly wasn't thinking about the ridiculous behavior that was about to be on display for the entire ward to see.

Problem number two was that the kids have been on a pretty steady sleep deprivation schedule since the summer has started.  It's certainly no excuse, but when certain children of ours are overly tired, they lose any control they might have had over their impulses and issues.  {cough * Ethan * cough}.  And in a semi-related sidenote, I'm beginning to strongly suspect that certain children of mine may be struggling with ADD.  Hashtag the fun never stops over here!  Hahahaha.

{Poor Scott with his sad bevy of presents.  Made sadder by the fact that he already knew what he was getting thanks to blabber-mouth children.  Mental note -- do NOT go Father's day shopping with the kids next year.}

Problem number three was that our children have SERIOUSLY poor volume control.  Which is an even bigger issue in the middle of church.  And there are 5 of them.  To finalize the portrait I'm painting for you of our Sacrament meeting struggles, picture the following:  Ethan throwing a fit because he wants to sit by Grace; Ethan then pretending to punch and hit Grace; Alex trying to run away half the time and screeching at the top of his voice the other half; Jane sitting quietly enough and coloring only to have Grace steal her notebook and pen away from her to draw her own pictures instead; Sophie giggling and laughing and trying to talk to her friend Juliana who is sitting in the row in front of us; Ethan practically yelling at Scott in the middle of church that he's so mean and he hates him; Ethan throwing himself practically on top of me {while I'm juggling Jane and Alex} in order to squeeze Grace out of the picture and sit next to me instead; a whole lot of whining; a little bit of complaining about wanting food; and a LOT of talking back and forth between the two oldest ones who should be the best examples out of the bunch.  I've been embarrassed A LOT in my life about my children's behavior during church.  I've never been this embarrassed in my life.  It was epically bad.  About 15 minutes in, I ended up having to take Alex out to the hall because he was just so loud and Jane quickly followed suit.   The next 15 -20 minutes were devoted to the stress of keeping those 2 tornados close enough to the chapel doors that I could make it back in for the musical number on time, yet far enough away that they weren't continuing to disturb the fine folks inside.  It was a mess.

{Hey -- it was no picnic inside with the older ones! is what Scott was invariably thinking.}

{It's a good thing I'm so incredible.}

Thankfully, the musical number went off without a hitch.  Or at least there was no hitch on the side of the singers.  I, on the other hand, totally biffed the first song I accompanied but managed to pull it together for the second one when Scott's quartet of singers joined in with the kids for Teach Me to Walk in the Light.  It was beautiful.  The highlight of the day, really.

{I sing, I do dishes, AND I flex my muscles.}

I'd like to say that the singing calmed their troubled souls and the kids behaved for the rest of the meeting, but that would not be the case.  We managed to make it through the rest of church in one piece, though, and once we were home I snapped the obligatory Father's Day pics with Scott and the kids with no blood shed.

{So #1 that she couldn't even follow through on her Father's Day gift of doing the dishes for him?}

{Created in summer school.  My personal favorite adjectives she's listed for Scott are "manly" and "zealous."  That's how I like to describe him, too.  Hahahahaha.}

{Ethan's ode was also paper deep this year.}

Aside from a brief respite from the insanity while playing Scriptionary this afternoon and attempting a little bit of gospel instruction, the kids finished strong with their ridiculously ill-behaved selves and earned themselves a super early bedtime at 6:30 this evening.  {Complete with a dose of melatonin just to make sure they had no problems falling asleep and catching up on all the sleep they've missed}.  All in all, it's a really good thing Scott is so easy to please.  Today was a far cry from the kind of celebration I was hoping to have for his special day.  Thank goodness I married Mr. Incredible!   Today would have been trying for a mere mortal.  Hahahaha.  Happy Father's Day!