Memorial Weekend Rundown...

The kids got up Friday morning ready to party the entire weekend! They had their happy faces on, as you can see, and were eager to get started. Before the festivities began we went outside to play in the yard for a bit. It was muggy and hot so I had an idea...

We walked around the front of the house and I ushered them into the screened area of the carport. I opened the door to the house so they could go in and out as they please. Rob's truck was pulled in the carport part-way, and I decided to T the van up to it to block the kids in. Everything was going perfectly for about 30 seconds. I was inching the van up ever so slowly and checking every time I let off the brake so I could get as close to the truck as possible. That way they couldn't fit their skinny little bodies through.

All the sudden I hear screaming while I am inside the van. I looked over and Peyton was holding onto the edge of the door with the hinges. Ethan was slamming the door over and over again while Peyton was screaming in pain. I leaped out of the van and ran to the rescue. Poor guy, I thought his knuckles and fingers might be broken. He cried for a really long time. Peyton usually doesn't waste much time recovering, but his hand was really hurt.

My anger went from 0 to 100 instantly. I showed Ethan what he did, spanked his butt and put him in bed. Some of you may think I was hard on him, but anyone who is around us much knows Ethan. He has been scolded a million times and put in time-out and spanked and put in bed countless times for messing with the doors. He will not listen. It drives me NUTS!!! He won't leave any door alone. The basement door, bedroom doors, folding closet doors, storm doors, outside shed doors, the main locking doors. He is infatuated with opening and closing doors. He is so used to getting in trouble for it that when he hears me yell his name, yes I yell, he runs to the time-out spot and sits down. Now, if he knows the punishment, he understands that he isn't supposed to mess with the doors. Any suggestions???

Once I got the van moved I got out the sidewalk chalk and riding toys and the kids had a great time out of the sun. It was a new fun thing for the kids to do. During their nap I got their pool out and filled it with water. I wasn't sure how it would go because last year they hated everything about pools and water. I was so relieved when they got in and started playing. Landon isn't a fan of the water at all, but he sat long enough to get a group picture. They swam from 3:00pm to 6:30pm. It was so neat to see the change in them from last year. They are growing up!

Saturday we got up and put the kids straight in the van. We took the kids up to Rob's parent's camp site at Patoka Lake. We hadn't ever taken the kids up there and I was really nervous about it. There was so much for the kids to get into. It was going to be a lot of work. After packing the entire house it seemed, we were on our way. We weren't there more than 15 minutes and we had to give Ethan a bath.

Bob and Esther have a slope they decorated with rocks and mulch. They have a fountain hooked up so water runs down the rocks and into this 2' by 2' little pond thing. Now, due to the kids birth and all the busyness of the past two years, the pond hadn't been ran or cleaned out. So, it was full of old, nasty, moldy, stagnant water. Ethan was walking down the slope and was completely oblivious to the pond at the bottom. He stepped right into it and fell in to his chest. He had no idea!! That is the cute part, it wasn't like he was being mischievous and putting his feet in, he had no clue it was there. You know when you are walking down steps and think you are at the bottom and you have another step to go. When you take that step you think you are falling. I can imagine that is what Ethan felt like. He wasn't a very happy camper, literally! Oh well, we gave him a quick bath and I washed his clothes and hung them out to dry. Luckily, I had packed a change for all of them.

Not 5 minutes later I had to change Sydney. She had found the one railroad tie out of about 100 and sat in the one small spot that tar had seeped out of. I had to throw her outfit away and quickly decided to strip them all down to their diapers. At the rate we were going I was going to be out of clothes in about 15 more minutes. Since I took their clothes off I had to put sun block on them. That ended up being a catastrophe. They rubbed their hands all over and got it in their eyes. That stuff is really painful when you get it in your eyes. We had well over an hour of crying from that ordeal.

We went up to the swimming pool after lunch and the kids had their very first experience in a big pool. We had floats for them to sit in. They all threw a fit initially. The water was pretty cold and they weren't to fond of that. Landon lost his mind! I felt bad for him so he got to go sit with Papaw. The rest got used to the water and by the end Ethan, Syd, Peytie, and Jenna all were jumping into the water to me from the side of the pool. The shallow end was only up to their shoulders so they could walk around some.

Once we got back to the camp site things quickly started unraveling. They wanted to climb up and down off the deck and walk around. They were falling and getting hurt every 5 sec. I think I was more stressed than the kids were, but I didn't feel like finding an ER to go have stitches put in someones head. Finally I couldn't take the stress anymore and we packed up and left. The kids were out immediately. We put them straight in bed when we got home and they didn't make a sound all night. We had a good time. The kids had a ball. Moms just worry too much sometimes.

Sunday morning we had to give the kids baths since they hadn't gotten one from the previous day. Landon was covered from head to toe in a red rash. Especially his head. It was little bitty bumps all over. They itched too. Jenna woke up and her face was swollen and had big bright red patches on them. I thought they might have had a reaction to the sun block. Jenna's cleared up after a day of benadryl. Landon is still covered with his rash. It isn't red anymore, but it isn't going away. I guess I'll see how it does over the weekend.

That wasn't all we did, but I'm tired of typing. I will finish tomorrow. Tomorrow I am weighing in and we will see how I have done. I will give you something to look forward too. Janet has weighed in too and we will see if her week 2 was as big as week 1. You know, on the Biggest Loser week 2 is always a bad week. We will see...