5:15am Audrey awake! and Nora awake too. Andy and I take babies downstairs and sit with them in the lounge.
6:30am Breakfast (bagels with egg and cheese).
7:15am Clean dining room table and floor.
7:20am I have a sneaky shower while Isaac plays upstairs and Andy watches babies and Lilah
8:00am Realized that it wasn't raining and the sun was almost out and this may be our only opportunity to try for a family photo this year or a christmas card. My mom came over and I quickly bribed the kids with early morning advent calendar AND potential hot chocolate to get dressed in semi-matching clothes (not the yellow and pink squirrel dress for lilah, and not an actual Christmas jumper for Isaac). 20 minutes later we had a passible family photo.
This is not the best photo, but it is a photo:
9:00am We did not take the big kids to swim lessons because they are also exhausted due to end of term tired. Instead, we went to Costco
Maple Syrup - 1 L for £9
9:45am finished at Costco (no one was at the check out yet, because it had only been open 15 minutes)
Organic Canned Tomato - 12 cans for £7
Bagels - 1 dozen for £5 (because they're good, and we cant get good bagels here)
Philadelphia Cream Cheese - massive tub for £3.50
Croissants - 12 for £5
Paprika - Giant thing for £3.50
Giant cheese - £7
Because taking 4 kids to costco is chaos (this is the first time we tried it, but taking 2 was chaos so 4 was going to be more chaos) we came in with a list, got exactly what was on the list, and got to the check out 20 minutes after we entered the store. My mom was there (she's the one with the membership) so she was able to add a few extra things, and I grabbed a giant box of Amaretti biscuits because CHRISTMAS
10:00am kids enjoying a £1.50 hot dog. This seemed slightly more sane than a slice of pizza, and far more sane than the dude already eating ice cream at 9:45.
10:30am Home from Costco. Kids enjoy the remainder of their hot dogs and the hot chocolate I had earlier bribed them with for photos.
10:35am Clean dining room table and floor.
11:00am Baby lunch while kids play/argue in their room
11:40am Clean dining room table and floor.
11:45am Put babies down for nap. This is our first day trying one nap day, so we have kept the babies up past their usual 9:30 first nap and are hoping for a longer midday nap.
12:00pm Start working on Holiday card with morning holiday photos. Kids playing quietly upstairs. Moment of calm and the thought "this is getting easier! I can't believe I can do something I want to do in the middle of the day! crosses my mind"
12:15pm Kids start arguing. I decide we can put on a film while the babies are sleeping.
12:25pm Lilah walks into baby room and wakes up babies. We were hoping for a 2 hour hour midday nap. They have had about 30 minutes of sleep. Babies are sad to be awake. Kids are sad because they cannot watch a film. Parents are sad for many reasons.
12:45pm Babies are definitely not going back to sleep. Get babies up. Give up on making holiday cards.
1:00pm walk tired grumpy kids and parents to the local play park. Pass a very underwhelming Christmas market
2:00pm Walk home from the park. Babies are very sad because their hands are cold or maybe they are hungry?
2:30pm Baby and kids second lunch (??) Babies have peanut butter on tortilla and melon. I cannot remember what the kids ate.
2:50pm Clean dining room table and floor.
3:00pm Everyone playing in lounge with the new toy (a box) we got from Costco
4:00pm Isaac heads to grandma's house for a sleep over. Misc playing with babies and getting Lilah dressed. Babies have a snack
4:30pm Chop potatoes and parsnips for dinner and quickly put in oven for roast veg
4:45pm Put on a Winnie-the-Pooh christmas film for Lilah. All hang out in lounge watching film and playing.
4:50pm Andy makes dinner and Cleans dining room table and floor from some snack the babies had at 4.
5:40pm Dinner time. Veggie burgers and potato chips and parsnips.
6:10pm Babies upstairs, get into pyjamas and get ready for bed
6:30pm Babies in bed.
6:35pm I take Lilah upstairs for bed while Andy Cleans dining room table and floor
7:00pm Lilah in bed. Downstairs and finish cleaning up from the day
7:30pm Andy and I watch an episode of Man on the Inside. It's kind of good. We also eat tasty smoked cheese on crackers and I have a glass of wine because it's 7:30 and why not.
8:15pm Bedtime. I read until 9:00 (Real Americans - I'm getting through it)
9:00pm Everyone falls asleep
How was your Saturday? Want to come over and clean our dining room table and floor someday?
Pro tip: everyone wants a DITL post! Bravo for taking all four kids to Costco! Woo hoo!!! They earned those hot dogs!
ReplyDeletehaha! The twins even got to enjoy some hot dog bun so everyone was a winner.
DeleteI LOVE DITL posts and yours was so interesting to read about. I can't believe you were done taking a family picture at 8 am. Though I can believe it. One year, our daughter woke up at 4 am the day we were going to do family pics (this is before our son was born), so we were getting our pictures done at like 8 or 9 am because I knew she was going to LOSE HER MIND from lack of sleep. The grass was still wet and the tip of her nose is pink in the pictures because it was so cold outside.
ReplyDeleteNow that family pictures would be so much easier, I don't do them. For years and years I dreaded family pictures so much (and a friend was taking the pic for free; never a professional photographer so the stakes were incredibly low). Every year someone was unhappy or sick. I did a lot of bribing for smiles. It worked...occasionally.
I am not sure how long we will do family photos but it's sometimes nice to get a photo with me in it too. Luckily my mom was here to take the photo and some turned out well enough to print. I know professional photos can look sooo good... I just don't know if my kids can hold it together for a professional. I had to go into the photos expecting nothing and then I was pleasantly surprised it worked!
DeleteI can't imagine trying to do photos with 4 teenagers though....
I wanted to cry for you all at the 2:30 update. I hope Sunday's nap went better!
ReplyDeleteSorry, not the 2:30. The 12:25.
DeleteMe too! Sunday was better - 11:45-1:30 - but the babies are soooo tired still. I am looking forward to being on the other side of nap transitions.
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