Busy Day

Today was a much more busy day than usual. For an anniversary gift for my husband's brother and wife, we have been baby-sitting their kids since last night through tomorrow afternoon. Today, Corey had school, so he was gone by 6:45 am. Then I got breakfast on for all six kids (Eliza doesn't count yet--she just sat in her swing and babbled). We had scrambled eggs, toast and juice.

After breakfast, everybody wanted to go outside. It was already pushing 90 (7:30 am), so we went outside and rode the scooter and bikes around the back patio. Caitlin tried my roller blades, and Toby tried the skates that were out there. Then we took it out front and shot some baskets, but everyone ended up fighting over the two basketballs we had, so we went back in the house. Plus it was getting warm.

At that time, I put Eliza down for a nap, so the other kids had to be quiet. We played Disney Scene It for a while and with puzzles in an effort to keep things quiet. Finally Corey came home, thank goodness, because I was about to lose it, and we put lunch in the oven (freezer chicken nuggets--Banquet Ocean Animals, pretty tasty for freezer nuggets). We did the whole bag and had just enough for everyone.

After lunch, the four younger ones went down for naps (Caleb, Wyatt, Travis and Eliza). Then the older ones (Caitlin, Toby, and Westley) went swimming with us. Caitlin also made brownies. When we came in from swimming, Travis and Eliza were both already awake. Caleb woke up shortly thereafter. Corey worked on stuff for school while I got the kids dressed and fed a snack.

Then, when Wyatt finally woke up, around 2 pm, we gathered up the group and went over (in two cars, might I add) to the City of Mesa Museum of Natural History. It was fun to see all the great exhibits, plus the kids got to pan for gold. It was also fun to see if Corey and I could handle seven kids at a public place like that. Things went well. We had Travis and Eliza in the double stroller and Wyatt in an umbrella stroller. The older four walked and most of them did pretty well. We enjoyed it, plus, it was a cooler way to pass the time than sitting around in a warm house trying to keep the kids from fighting.

We got back and made snow cones to cool off from the jaunt from the museum to the cars, then from the cars to the house. Then we started dinner, and popped in a movie for the kids. After dinner, we did baths, bedtime stories, and right now, 6 out of the 7 are in bed for the night with only Wyatt remaining, whose bedtime is WAY later than everyone else's (my kids between 6 and 7, Caitlin and Toby at 7/7:30 and Wyatt between 8 and 9!). Hopefully he'll fall asleep soon (sooner than last night--it took us until 10:15 to get him down!) and we can finish folding laundry (yes, I even did laundry between all this) and get to bed!

What a day! I'm glad tomorrow is only a half day and I'm glad I only have four kids and not seven!