Keeping Busy On a Thursday
The holiday break is starting to drag on a bit. Joe went back to work yesterday, and we still have a few days left before Julie returns to pre-school. I had planned ahead for this eventuality, and signed us up for a community ed activity called "Ooey-Gooey Fun" for this morning. We had a bit of a struggle getting out the door on time, and I didn't help matters any by stopping the girls on the way out the door for a quick photo because I thought they looked so darn cute.
It was one of those moments where I was so *angry* at all of us for not getting our acts together, that I had to stop myself and take a deep breath, look at my girls and appreciate how wonderfully cute and sweet they really are. Sophie has her hands in her pockets here because she refuses to wear her lovely handknit and felted mittens about 90 percent of the time.
Unfortunately, when we arrived twenty minutes late at the location where I thought the activity was being held, it became clear that the activity was actually being held at a different location fairly close by, but which would have taken us another twenty minutes to reach when one calculates in time needed to load up the kids in the van, drive over, get them back out and run them up a couple flights of stairs. So we would have had to go through all the running around for at most twenty minutes of potential fun, assuming that the kids wouldn't freak out about arriving mid-stream with all the other kids already making their mess.
I opted out. We needed to head over to the grocery co-op, so I made a quick-thinking deal with the girls. "Let's go to the grocery store now, we'll get you a treat and some lunch from the deli counter [Julie loves getting a little box of black beans and brown rice from there, has since she was Sophie's age]. Then, when we get home, we'll do ooey-gooey fun in the kitchen. And the ploy worked.
And oh, it was at least as much fun as we would have had at the planned event. I bought some chocolate pudding at the store, and after lunch and nap I set the girls down with a dollop of pudding and a dollop of vanilla yogurt each on a pie plate, and told them it was finger paint they could eat.
I swear, they sat there and played for almost an hour. And that is HUGE for kids this age. And the cleanup wasn't even that bad. I got them in the tub right after, and gave them a bubble bath, which I rarely do because the soap is bad on their skin. And guess what? They spent almost another hour playing in the tub.
See, look - happy kids in the late afternoon. It's all good. They love it when I give them a bath early and let them put their soft, cuddly jammies on before dinner. The rest of the day was a cake walk. Whew!
It was one of those moments where I was so *angry* at all of us for not getting our acts together, that I had to stop myself and take a deep breath, look at my girls and appreciate how wonderfully cute and sweet they really are. Sophie has her hands in her pockets here because she refuses to wear her lovely handknit and felted mittens about 90 percent of the time.
Unfortunately, when we arrived twenty minutes late at the location where I thought the activity was being held, it became clear that the activity was actually being held at a different location fairly close by, but which would have taken us another twenty minutes to reach when one calculates in time needed to load up the kids in the van, drive over, get them back out and run them up a couple flights of stairs. So we would have had to go through all the running around for at most twenty minutes of potential fun, assuming that the kids wouldn't freak out about arriving mid-stream with all the other kids already making their mess.
I opted out. We needed to head over to the grocery co-op, so I made a quick-thinking deal with the girls. "Let's go to the grocery store now, we'll get you a treat and some lunch from the deli counter [Julie loves getting a little box of black beans and brown rice from there, has since she was Sophie's age]. Then, when we get home, we'll do ooey-gooey fun in the kitchen. And the ploy worked.
And oh, it was at least as much fun as we would have had at the planned event. I bought some chocolate pudding at the store, and after lunch and nap I set the girls down with a dollop of pudding and a dollop of vanilla yogurt each on a pie plate, and told them it was finger paint they could eat.
I swear, they sat there and played for almost an hour. And that is HUGE for kids this age. And the cleanup wasn't even that bad. I got them in the tub right after, and gave them a bubble bath, which I rarely do because the soap is bad on their skin. And guess what? They spent almost another hour playing in the tub.
See, look - happy kids in the late afternoon. It's all good. They love it when I give them a bath early and let them put their soft, cuddly jammies on before dinner. The rest of the day was a cake walk. Whew!
posted by Shelly Kang at 9:50 PM
6 Comments:
Sometimes those days when you relax and just let yourself "go with the flow" turn out to be some really good days.
Your girls really are gorgeous, and Sophie looks SO cute in that hat.
I love in the bath photo that Sophie is looking at Julie like they've just had the most fun ever!
They look like they had a wonderful day!
Way to go Supermom!! What an awesome day you made for your girls!
Oh, fun!! My little girls are about the same age as yours (just a touch older), so I love reading about your days with them. Thanks for the pudding idea! I'm going to try it.
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