Wednesday, October 27, 2010

5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

My brother who lives in Boise asked me to come babysit his kids for a few days so he could take his wife to see her cousin, Roy Halladay, pitch against the Giants in San Francisco. It worked out pretty well because Mike was going to be out of town for most of the time anyway. I had to leave just a couple of days before him and got home about 2 hours after him.

The 7 hour drive with me, the kids and dog was, of course eventful, but nothing other than the normal 7 hour drive with 2 kids and a dog by myself. Danny has 3 kids and a dog as well. I had kids ages 0, 1, 2, 3 and a severely handicapped 6 year old, 2 dogs and no hubby or any other adult for that matter for 3 days. It actually was fun! Each day there were 10 crazy minutes here and there, but that happens even with just 2 kids. We played play-doh, chalked and the weather was nice enough for playing on the playground in the backyard and going for a walk. I got a little nervous when I saw the girls playing on a skateboard on the driveway and hid that. Visions of bleeding children needing stitches with me trying to take all 5 kids to the ER started running through my head. A situation I didn't want to see if I could conquer. Other than a few bumps and bruises from the swing set it was an accident free few days.

The kids played really well together. Isabelle and Sydney are about 6 months apart and Michael and Nick are about 8 months apart. The most exciting part of the day was getting Kali off the bus and then having a bed party to welcome her home. She is in 1st grade now. They would watch for the bus to come and all scream when it came. I went and got her off the bus and put her in her bed. She's always exhausted after a long day. All the kids piled in to welcome her home and play with her for a few minutes before she crashed for her nap.

Overall, it was a complete success. It was so fun for the cousins and dogs to get to play together. To top it all off Danny and Karen had a blast and enjoyed the quick spontaneous get away without kids!

2 comments:

rozanny said...

looks like it was fun and I'm glad that it went so well for you! I know it can get hectic sometimes... I babysit... I have anywhere between my two (3 and 1) and 3 three year olds 2 one year olds and 1 two year old... it gets exciting... and messy.

John said...

You are BRAVE!!! Good job.