Mari and Serg were in for a crazy busy weekend at the restaurant so I volunteered to take her kids for the weekend. It's the first time they've ever slept anywhere without their parents so we were nervous, but things turned out just fine. We moved the kid's table and chairs inside so that Jayden and Aiden could sit here to dinner and Sebi and Maya could sit in their booster seats. They loved having their own space.
Here is Sebastian watching tv.
On Easter Sunday, we decided to go to the second service. The first would have been too early with 4 kids and the last would have been perfect, but I didn't want to go to the last service. Amazingly, we get there at 9am exactly. I sit down thinking to myself, "I'm Super Mom and Super Titi!" I feel more joy than I can remember feeling in a long time and I'm overtaken by the moment so I bend down to kiss them each, when I realize that I never brushed their teeth or washed their faces. Horrified, I grab a wipe and start to clean them up as best as I could, since not a one of them likes having their faces, particularly their eyes, wiped! Here are my angels. Jayden is still mad about the wipe incident.
We quickly lost control of the situation and the kids become antsy. Maya and Sebi are begging to come out of their strollers and I almost had to sit on Jayden and Aiden to keep them in their seats. But it's Easter Sunday and I'm not losing my temper no matter what happens so I do my best to keep them interested in the service. Thank God for the choir! Because of the large turnout on Easter Sunday, the church holds an outdoor service to accommodate the crowds since the new building is under construction and not ready yet. They set up a large white tent and chairs and we are sitting literally in an area with dirt, covered by mulch. This is usually where the cars park. And before I know it, the kids have discovered sticks and start playing with the dirt and mulch. Esteban was furious, but I pretend as if it's not happening. Atleast they are not causing a scene, I muse to myself! Here's Maya all but sitting in the pile of dirt.
The kid's hands and feet were black with dirt. Ugh. Here's Aiden's feet!
Only adorable Sebi was still clean.
Maya was black with dirt and then she wiped her hands and feet on Esteban's pant legs. Didn't she know he was already mad?
After the service, we cleaned up and took the kids to grab some breakfast. They all had fun picking out muffins and donuts. We then headed to the playground where they forgot all about the goodies and ran off to have a good time.
Sebi was just being too cute!
Even Esteban takes a swing with the boys.
On the way out, the kids ran ahead of us and right into the bounce house. We caved and said 5 minutes, ok! I just vetoed the idea of having a bounce house at the kid's birthday party because last time, Jayden and Maya refused to go in. Oh well.
Here's Jayden pushing some poor soul.
After we finally convinced them to come out of the bounce house (Esteban had to literally go in and grab Chooch), we went home and discovered that the Easter bunny had been by and left treats!
The kids were thrilled with their baskets. Eggs and Easter grass were everywhere and everyone was fighting for everyone else's things.
A little blurry, but Maya found a Dora shovel and a bunny noisemaker in her basket!
Jayden didn't care what was in his eggs. He just wanted to open them up in a jiffy and claim the prizes as his own!
After basket mayhem, we took them to the bathroom for a thorough cleaning of hands and feet and left them in their undies to play for a while.
And Jayden and Chooch actually took their naps together. Jayden never wants to sleep with Chooch, so I was thrilled. Of course, Chooch doesn't fool around. When it's time to sleep, it's time to sleep. And Jayden is a major fool arounder. So when I peeked in on them Chooch was in sleep position and Jayden was standing over him with his blanket over his head, pretending to be a ghost. Poor Chooch! Here they are after they finally passed out.
After nap, we had dinner at a friend's house. They have a huge retention pond behind their home, which was completely empty so I took the kids there to play soccer. I was just to nervous to stay in our host's yard since they had a pool, but no pool fence. And it was a pretty tight space. In this large wide open space, there wasn't much that could go wrong, except that everyone was fighting over the volleyball, soccer ball, and tennis ball.
Maya could care less about the sticks. As long as there were sticks and dirt, she was fine!
The evening ended at 9:30 when the kids went to sleep. What a day!
