High energy weekends, all weekends, low margins, kids sports, turkey dinners

I'm never sure where the balance between doing "too much" and "not enough" is.  For instance - this weekend we did thanksgiving! We did a make-ahead turkey, which was super awesome.  We cooked the following:

• Turkey
• kale salad
• homemade brioche stuffing
• cornbread
• roast sweet potato
• mashed potato
• gravy
• green beans
• Pumpkin Pie (with homemade short crust pastry)
• Apple Pie (with homemade rough puff pastry)

It was kind of insane to fit that much cooking into a weekend that also still had 4 kids worth of chaos.  On Saturday the 5 and 7 year old stayed home in pyjamas in the morning while Andy cooked.  I took the twins to some shops to buy some random things.  In the afternoon Andy took Ezra and Clara to a friend's house while Lily had a play date and Aubrey and I watched a NYT video on how to carve a turkey while carving a turkey (me) and eating yogurt (her)

In the evening Andy and I went for drinks with a friend at a local very loud bar. I was very tired in the morning when Aubrey decided to wake up at 5:30.

Ezra went to grandma's house for a play date, but before he left we had 5 minutes of not rain and decided to try for a family photo.  We got one that was OK but man it is hard to get 4 kids looking good in a photo.  Also I wore lipstick and I thought I looked great and now I think I look clown.  Oops.

Here's an outtake:

Lily was given that dress recently in a hand-me-down box.  Ezra's jumper came from a charity shop a few years ago. Clara is wearing a matching jumper to Aubrey, which we were given from another twin mum recently.  We have been lucky with the hand-me-downs!

Then Andy and I took Lily and the twins to the pool, where we met up with other friends because apparently the indoor pool is the November hangout space.

In the afternoon we did a thanksgiving dinner, which was nice, but It always feels a bit odd to cook and eat a thanksgiving meal without friends around. We don't have a table big enough to have people over for meals at the moment (unless it's a one-pot situation) but someday I would love to make a thankgiving meal more of a friends and family thing and less of an excuse to eat a giant meal in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday.  

On the other hand, I am so happy with my thanksgiving leftovers lunch today:

How many devilled eggs are in a serving? All of them.

Anyways, it was an exhausting weekend, but I feel like it was no more exhausting than any other weekend.  I don't think weekends with margins or chill out time exist right now, with twin two year olds.  I know they will exist soon. SO we may as well do a lot with our weekends, if they're going to be exhausting and chaotic either way.

And speaking of scheduling and lack of down time, I'm starting to feel my kids could use more sports/hobbies/things.  I never wanted to put them in classes before because I wanted to just have them happy playing at home, but what happens often is just fighting at home.  And also, their friends are doing classes... and some of my kids could use more friends from different places as well.  

Yesterday I signed Ezra up for tennis lessons on Saturday mornings and Lily is trialing Ballet/Tap on Mondays, starting today.  

The other problem with classes/things is getting kids there.  They currently swim on Tuesdays, which means I need to finish work 20 minutes early to drive them to lessons, and our Nanny watches the twins at that time.  I'm hoping one of Lily's classmates can take her to Ballet (it's across the street) and in exchange I'll drop her friend home after class... but I'll again have to finish work 10 minutes early on a Tuesday.  And again... we're paying a nanny for this time.

I guess really the question is "what am I optimizing for" and I do think it's good for kids to try different sports and activities... And the barrier to entry on sports is probably higher as they get older.  I am aware that I'm cutting back on rachel time / work time each time I commit to something like this.  

On a personal level, I haven't done much sport in over a week and I don't feel particularly caught up on anything.  At the same time, I'm unlikely to feel less caught up by adding a bunch more stuff in... right?

Oh, and speaking of chaos and low margin...  for whatever reason I've offered to join the PTA next year. Which is probably insane.  My list of 100 dreams included "be a treasurer somewhere" and I figured I was good with math/money and bad with other people's kids so maybe this was my way of giving back?  Or maybe also meeting other driven/career minded parents?  At the same time, I've spent the first 3 years of education making no effort and avoiding all social things, so perhaps I have made a terrible mistake offering to be involved.  

I guess I'll go to the AGM tonight and find out what sort of chaos I have volunteered myself for.

Have you been on a PTA?  Do you have kids in sports or classes? Did you do kids sports? Is ballet terrible and going to give Lily an eating disorder?  Is Tennis in December in Wales a terrible idea?