Overnight Guests

Jessica had her birthday on Wednesday (and got to spend the day at a Sexual Abuse of Children Conference--happy birthday to her.) Anyway, they celebrated on Thursday by bringing the kids up to our house and going out for a dinner and movie (well, they tried to go to dinner but after waiting at IHOP for about 25 minutes they were told that they really didn't have a cook, just a waitress trying to cook until a manager arrived in a hour--and she didn't know how to cook what they had order, but they loved the movie they went to.)  Because it was going to be a late night, they decided to spend the night so the kids could get to bed around the right time.

Carter

Alex

Now the only flaw in this program was that I had to get the four kids to sleep.  Gary had a dinner date with his mom and sister and Jena is great for playing with kids but not for helping put them to bed.  I finally was able to rock the two girls to sleep in the rocker in the guest room only to realize that there was no way--holding both of them in my arms that I could put them into the port-a-crib.  It is tricky to put one down that low without waking them up--two would be impossible.  So I got "stuck" rocking them for about an hour thinking that if they were REALLY asleep I could figure out how to put them in bed.....then it got very quiet in the game room.  Liam, Jena and Zander had been playing the whole time very nicely.  You know how it is with moms, you can usually hear if things are going well in play, but silence is dangerous.  I then tried to lay one of the girls down which led them both to wake up---so we went out and saw the reason they were quiet.  Grandpa had arrived and they were all watching TV together. Darn--two babies awake after a one hour nap--instead of sleeping through the night.  I took the opportunity to put the boys to bed and walked back and forth in their bedroom holding the girls and singing to all four of them until they had settled to sleep.  Then back to the rocker and holding the girls trying to get them back to sleep.  Carter fell quickly asleep, but Alex was in a playful mood and for about 10 minutes we chatted (quietly) back and forth while Carter slept.  Jessica and Elessia came and saved me after another hour of rocking and holding these two sweet babies.  What a lucky grandmother am I?

Liam 

Zander

Friday was a crazy day for me so we didn't have much time for anything more than pancake breakfast and some brief conversations here and there.  The boys had a great time playing even though it was a rainy day, so I think they felt like they had a mini vacation as well.  Fun times.