Honey, I Survived the Playdate

In a weak moment I decided to have several kids over for a playdate with Abbie... seven to be exact. I know, I know! It's just that one mom has twin 3-yr.-olds and a 1 1/2-yr.-old and is expecting their fourth and the hubby's been out of town lots lately. How do you turn your back on that people?! Tell me! No really, give me some ideas. :) The other mom is a good friend with two younger and two older kids (7 & 9), and I figured that the older kids could each be assigned a younger kid and that we'd just play outdoors most of the time. That was the plan at least, and it worked... on the older kids who stayed outside the entire time and wanted nothing to do with the younger ones. The little ones were just too drawn to the little play diner in the TV room, and the dress-up corner and under-bed fort in Abbie's room, and the toy drawer in the boy's room... and just about everything else.

Several things I learned from the experience: Abbie is very helpful when it comes to potty-training others, Kayla's digital camera is easy enough for a three-yr.-old to use (and took good pictures too!), and a two-yr.-old fits quite nicely in the drawer under the bed. All in all, we survived and the kitchen stayed relatively clean, so a good time was had by all. Thank goodness it was only two hours.

Okay, so if you need a good laugh, here are two suggestions: check out www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com and go watch a T-ball game. I came across the blog trying to find a funny cake for Shaun and Dylan to make for a cub scout meeting. At one point I called my mom to tell her about it and was laughing so hard she couldn't understand me. The T-ball game was Matt's first game of the season that we all went to. Dad describes it as chickens trying to play baseball. Seriously, all it was missing was the Benny Hill music. I felt bad for laughing so hard since these kids parents were all sitting in the stands. I can't decide if my favorite was the kids that got bored waiting for the ball to be hit to them and decided to sit down and play in the sand instead, or the one kid who kept falling down because the helmet was so big it kept making him lose his balance like a drunken bobble-head. Then there was the "dog pile on the ball" move when it finally made it within a mile radius of them, and the multiple runners on one base because one of them doesn't know where they should be running next. Matt was the only one that didn't have to be told to "RUN!" after he hit the ball, or where and when to run when going to the next base, and was always "baseball ready" for a the ball to come near him. He's already mentioned maybe trying Karate next. :)

On a more serious note, Dylan got his second win which keeps the team undefeated so far. Kayla was impressed since the opposing team had two kids from church on it that had been playing for a couple of years. The coach has been amazed that Dylan's never played before. Kudos to Grandpa Larry for taking the boys to their practices and games and for knowing all the kids names on the team and being able to tell us all about the way they play ("this one swings at everything" or "he's our best pitcher"). Woo hoo for grandparents!!

May the luck o' the Irish be with you and yours on this St. Patrick's Day!