Friday, August 1, 2008

Sanity? Check please.

Do you ever have those moments of self realized brilliance? You come up with the best idea ever? Or so you think. I am not the only one. Right?

Well, I had one of those moments this week when I decided it would be F-U-N to allow each child to have a spend the night guest over. You know, it being the end of the summer and all. We could celebrate one more time with guests. All under our own roof.

Sanity check, Tammy! This means that two children, whom you did not give birth to, will be guests in your home for, ohhh, 24 hours. 2 boys, 2 girls. Are you ready for this? Only trained professionals have 4 kids in their home at one time.

Tuesday was the big day and you could just feel the excitement in the air at our house. We picked up my son’s guest around 1pm and the boy games began. Inside. Outside. Inside. Outside. Wii. Legos. Inside. Outside.

My daughters BFF was dropped off at the GRITS house about 4pm. About, ohhhh, 4:15 I was greeted with, “she’s wearing the dress I want to wear”. Which was soon followed by, “but I want to wear it”.

Fortunately, we had to interrupt this regularly scheduled 7 year old double-diva fashion show for the Princess’ flag football practice (another day, another blog). We took all 4 children to the field and let them all run around. Aha, the parents super secret plan to wear them out was in effect. Followed by a trip to the Pizza Hut buffet. F-U-N!

Miraculously, all were in bed and asleep before 11pm. Thank you, Lord!

As usual, the boys were up at the butt-crack of dawn, but quietly playing the Wii when I joined them around 8am. And just what do you think the girls were doing when I got up??? Arguing over who was going to wear the pretty black dress!

I was forced to shut down the fashionista runway. The “no more dress up” decree was handed down. And the news was not well received by the dueling divas. Hmph!

Sanity check, Tammy! Get on your knees right now and thank the Lord for the ONE little girl you gave birth to. It’s true, he doesn’t give us more than we can handle. And he knew I could only take one little pink princess.

After a delicious breakfast of chocolate chip muffins, the boys went outside for a few rounds of backyard baseball. Where were the girls??? You just had to ask.

Arguing. “I want to play Clue JR” “but I want to play Monopoly JR”. Holy moly. How do people handle this much diva in their household?! I was more than ready to snatch myself bald. I went to my room, counted to 1 million and went back into the den to stop the seemingly silly bickering. Which by this time had escalated into, “that’s not the way you play” “you are cheating”.

I quickly and irrationally explained to them they could either play the games without arguing constantly or we could put the games away and neither would get to go to the movies after lunch. I also put away the more complicated JR games and busted out the Balloon Lagoon game. This game is great and was thoroughly enjoyed by the 7 year old Princess and her guest. Crisis averted. I think.

The boys came in and went straight back to the Lego pile. At some point, the Lego creations became bathtub toys and the boys t-shirts came off. My 15 minutes of “peace and quiet” was interrupted by the divas informing me that “the boys took their shirts off”. With gritted teeth I politely reminded them that boys can take their shirts off and nobody was being hurt by the shirtless 9 year old boys. I mean being able to count all those ribs is just wrong!

The spend the night fiesta finally came to an end after we all enjoyed going to see “Space Chimps” at the theater.

Sanity check, Tammy! Spend the night company is better done one at a time.

It’s true, hind sight is always 20/20!

15 comments:

marky said...

I am not a fan of sleep over here. Congrats for surviving it, and for getting it over and done with both kids at the same time ;-)
Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog.

Nik said...

LOL! WOW! I think that needs to be entered into the mommy tournament (something that we posted about on my blog)...surviving sleep overs. Thanks for the idea!

Glad you survived!

Mike Golch said...

Sleep is an overated thing anyway. Hugs and God's love and Blessings-Mike G. said that!(Its an A.A.thing)

Valarie Lea said...

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy.. what were you thinking?

Oh and a word for in a couple of years. Watch the little girls who want to spend the night with your little diva, but really want to be there because of her brother. :) I am just saying, cause I know it happens.

Valarie Lea said...

Oh and vice versa, I know that happens also. :)

littletoesandcheerios said...

When I first found out I was pregnant people would ask me if I wanted twins. I would reply one at a time Lord, just one at a time!

Teresa said...

Girl, I feel your pain. Have I ever told you about the time I thought it would be SO!MUCH!FUN! to have 7 girls spend the night at my house? Probably not because the thought of it makes me twitch and sweat.

And thanks for the list in my comments section! I labored over whether or not to mention Booger. I came close to calling my post "Once Upon a Time a girl with dandruff in her hair lived on 3rd floor next door to Bobbye Jean." Oh yes ma'am I did.

Beachy Mimi said...

Not a huge fan of the sleepover, but I know that some kids really like them. My experience was someone always ended up in tears and pouting. Ugh! At least you got them over at the same time and it got you some mommy cred.

DD said...

This cracked me up b/c it totally reminds me of the torture I put my parents through with spend the night guests. I'm sure it wont be long till Lo's in the same way.

Kathryn said...

Ha! I encouraged my daughter to invite her entire class (girls only!) as well as her entire soccer team to her 10-year-old birthday party/sleepover two years ago, so no one "would feel left out". Sixteen pre-teen girls in one house ... is not such a great idea!

Blessings ... from one GRITS (SC orginial, VA transplant) to another!

PS-Found your cute blog while surfing CWO! :-)

Heather said...

Haha - did it make you wonder how your mama did it, lol! Glad everyone survived that last party before school's back in session...I guess you're not planning on a spend the night party for the Princess' eigth b'day right ;)

Jenn said...

Four kids in the same house is not so bad when they are your own...ok, the fighting is head ringing, but you learn to tune it out....people don't notice the twitch in your eye that much...it's great, really it is!

Actually, when it's your own kids, you feel more at ease about them, you know, pulling each other's hair out so you don't feel as if you have to referee every squabble. When it's not your kid, you have to worry about how the other kid's parents will act if your little darling takes drastic measures and say "pulls out a chunk of hair" in the midst of her anger.

I can completely understand the stress! Glad you made it through without yanking out all of your hair!......and glad you warned us all so we could learn from your brilliant idea! Many thanks!!

Beachy Mimi said...

You've been tagged over at Beachy Mimi

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

UGGG! I hate the dreaded question of, can so and so spend the night. Because it is certain to come to a dramatic head. And then I blow a gasget. I have two boys. One girl and yes, that is where the yahyah derives. I completely feel ya!
Sooo today, lcok yourself in the bathroom, take a hot bath and sip on something cool and tastey! You deserve it.

Lisa said...

Welcome to the world of multiple girls...they never stop fighting! Let me pass a little sleepover wisdom to that I've learned through the years...you had them over for too long!!! I always have them come around 5-6 or anytime after and pickup is at 11. It is all I can handle with this madness that is the sleepover. :)