So the big, exciting plan for yesterday was to go to the drive-in to see the new Planes movie with the kids. Justin took them to the pool for a long time in the morning in the hopes that they’d get worn out and take a nap or at least a quiet time in the afternoon, but despite staying at the pool for more than 2 hours, they were still completely full of energy and not the least bit interested in sitting still.
So we ate lunch and played games for a little while — I challenged them to try to play Mario Kart in a rotation so everybody got to play. Once they understood what I was trying to explain, they were pretty much okay with that idea.
Justin and I had a chiropractor appointment in the middle of the afternoon and the kids were absolutely wonderful while we were there. We chatted in the car before we arrived about how I’d like them to make sure not to bother anyone and not run around and shout but to sit and play with either the things they brought with them (Audrey brought some of her dolls and Ethan brought a book) or the toys that are in the office. And they did that perfectly! In fact, they whispered instead of talking normally, just to show that when I ask them to be quiet, they can REALLY be quiet. 🙂
We played for a while after getting back to the house. Justin’s sister, Jessi, stopped by to pick up her car and she stayed for the homemade burritos we had for dinner — another meal that we weren’t sure would go over well but seemed to be enjoyed by all. We made sure to pay better attention to how much each kid was eating this time and didn’t make them eat the whole thing when they got full. Isaac managed to down the whole burrito! Both of his siblings only ate half, but Ethan had a big lunch and Audrey’s was a lot bigger, so eating half was plenty of food.
Before getting ready to go the movie, we took a video of the kids so they could send a message to their parents, since our schedules didn’t work out for the Skype call last night. It’s about 3:30 minutes long of very excited kids shouting their well-wishes, but I haven’t been able to get it to upload to YouTube yet. I’ll try again later this afternoon. It really is ADORABLE.
And then we went to the movie. The two youngest fell asleep in the car on the way, but Audrey woke up to play on the playground at the drive-in with Ethan for a while when we arrived. Isaac slept until the movie was about to start. We sprayed bug-spray on the kids, got popcorn and sodas, followed later by funnel cake sundaes, and watched the very cute film. I asked Audrey what she thought and she said that she likes inside movies better because the bathrooms are closer and there are less bugs. I had to agree that those were pretty good reasons to like indoor movies better. The bugs last night were unpleasant.
We hit melt-down o’clock heading home, where two kids started crying between packing up the car and driving home. It was quite late by the time we got home and got everybody into bed.
Today, we had planned to take the kids to a beach that’s supposed to be good for looking for shells and things, but we think everybody needs a quiet day to rest up and not have such an exciting, tiring day today. I’m hopeful that they slept in late this morning, since I know the adults in the house are both exhausted, too. And we’ll be sure to get to bed on time tonight. We’ll head to that beach tomorrow.
And now, I have to get to work! I’ll try to upload that video this afternoon.