The Village and the Villagers

Me: You guys are loud.

J: Yeah! Boys are loud!

Me: Hey, buddy.

C: Hello, and I am here to eat your brains.

Me: You have 20 minutes of Moby Max and your Rock 'n Roll to do.
Teen: No, 10.
Me: No, you did less than 40 yesterday, so I'm being nice by calling it 20 left.
Teen: 10.
Me: 20.
Teen: 15.
Me: 25.
Teen: 18.
Me: 30.
Teen: 20.
Me: Deal.
Teen: *pause* SHUDDUP! I hate you!

Me: Are you sleepy, D?
D: Yeah, I am tired.
Me: Do you want to go to the restaurant or back to the Treehouse?
D: I need to go to the restaurant and be tired.

(3/17) Happy St. Paddy's Day!  The leprechauns left treats for the kids, even though we failed to catch one again this year.  Dad & I worked today and Sarah had the kiddos. We met at the gym and got in some workout time, and then I headed home to put the boys to bed.  That's how fast Tuesdays go.

Ancient legends say everybody can cast a spell.
That isn't true. You need training.
Most are from temples.

(3/18) Work for Dad, and I had the kids today.  Nanan came down and we took her to the Imagine Children's Museum.  We let the twins tire themselves out and then went and grabbed burritos from one of our fave Mexican restaurants and brought the twins home to have the requested bagel lunch. Mom and I visited all the way up til it was time to go grab C from school.  She stayed with napping twins while I went to get C.  Then she stayed when I went to go fetch the teen from her school dance, running into my 7th grade math teacher who was there picking up her 7th grade granddaughter.  And she stayed when I ran the teen back to school for choir at the wrong time... and through running the teen up north to deliver her at the right time.  Sorry, Mom.  But I am ever so grateful that she was there so I didn't have 3 extra tag-a-longs! Grandma & Granddad attended the teen's choir concert, which ended at 9pm, and took her out for ice cream after.  Yay, grandparents!!


(3/19) Work day for Dad & me and Sarah had the kiddos.  I had a party to attend after work, so Grandma & Granddad went and grabbed everybody from Sarah's house.  The twins were so off their games and just lost it.  Grandma put J upstairs to chill out, and he promptly fell asleep.  D decided it was a good night to eat everything in the house, and had like 3 plates of dinner, dessert and was still chirping for more when I got home.  I put them to bed shortly after and had a few minutes to spend with the bigs, but not a whole lot.


(3/20) Work day for me and Dad had the kiddos. The bigs were off from school today and got to have a more or less lazy day.  The teen's social worker visited mid-morning at the ungodly hour of 10:30a, so she had to be awake! I hid downstairs, and worked through most of the drama ;)  After I got off work, we took the fam out for Chang's.  The twins were bananas tonight, and kept knocking fake plants off the railing, trying to climb the walls, and jumping on the booths.  We decided to bag dessert and just run home to sugar them up there.  D is really into camping, so I tried to get him to settle by drawing a picture.  He had me draw him & J in a tent, the teen and I next to the fire, Dad got his own tent, and he put C waaaaay up on the mountain.


(3/21) End of the year bash for hockey today.  Dad & C went out to that and the rest of us lounged around in jammies.  We watched some kid TV, read the same book a half dozen times, and avoided homework like champs. After the boys returned, we got the bigs to do their chores and at least start on homework for real. And then Dad ran the teen up to stay with her sisters this weekend. She's had a hard week, so I'm super glad it worked out for her to go up.  We hosted game night tonight and the twins treated everyone to quite the show after they went to bed.  Since their room is right above where we game, we got to hear them jumping, mattress tossing and seeing just how loud they could yell.  Rob came bearing wine.  He was smart.  ;)  Hubs and I had the evening to ourselves after the crew left and our big boy went up to bed.  I did what I always do and fell asleep reading on the couch.  Clearly a well-practiced partier.

D: Look!  I found another camping!

Uh....not sure I want to fly Imagine Air

(3/22) Busy day today. Dad made us a yummy scone breakfast, which I ate on the way to the gym.  Sarah and I then went to the Bux and from there, to Target to try on swimsuits... because there's nothing more fun than trying to twist and turn into bits of fabric when your arms are noodles, yes?  Yes.  Successful there, we went home to grab our kiddos and to meet up at the pool for family swim at the aquatic center.  We met up with the teenager there and all had a fun time.  I brought home exhausted, hungry kiddos and quickly threw lunch at them before putting the littles down.  Since the littles didn't go down until almost 3p, I let them sleep until about 5:30p.  I made a dinner that everyone hated, so moved them all on to showers/baths and homework.  The littles were up long after they should have been and I went up and grumped at them around 9p, because seriously... Mama was *done.*

So... this is nap time.

Note the mattress on the floor

(3/23) Happy Monday!  Work day for Dad & me, school for the bigs and Sarah has the littles.  The grands are taking the bigs out to see Cinderella tonight.  C turned his nose up at watching a "girl movie," but Grandma thinks she can smooth things over with SPK.  I'm quite sure she's right.