Five Is A Lot

Today I had all five kids at my house.  Ally has taken a job tutoring at a local school two days a week and Corey is out of town, so I was next up on the babysitting list.  At the end of the day all I can say is five is a lot...a whole lot.  I don't know how people have in home day cares.  Do you sacrifice your house or your sanity?  I think probably both.  My house was beyond a disaster.  Every single room.   

I made a few mistakes that I will take full credit for.  Like, stupid me served spaghetti.  Yes, spaghetti.  It took a full hour to clean the table, chairs and under the table after they were done.  Luckily Bec was here then and took them outside to play during this time.  Secondly, I told the kids they had to stay in they den/playroom.  But I didn't really enforce this (trying to be the nice aunt/mama, I guess) and they managed to make their way to every room and leave their mark.  We had three big fights between Cannon and Sam which led to blows and tears.  Cade got hit with the playhouse door outside and gashed his face and Nana had to take him to the doctor to have it glued properly.  Ally arrived and I headed out to Target to search for my sanity.  I came home with blue icees for all five kids (because as if they weren't wild enough...give them more sugar, right?!?).  We all went to G-Ma and Poppa's for dinner and back to our house for baths.  Both of my boys were out like a light by 8:30 and I wasn't far behind them.  

Here's a few pics from the night's activities.  After dinner, the kids still wanted to play and since it was dark outside Ally improvised and led them in some games.  Oh, what you can do with a rope and a teacher's brain...

First they played "Jump the brook" which consisted of making the area between the rope larger and larger as they jumped over it.  Big, "pretend" alligators were swimming in that brook...

Next up...limbo, of course.

Lastly, make the rope into a circle and have a dance off on the "stage"...