3-2-1-0...

No, the title of this blog isn't for some random countdown to a sale at the Gap... it is the ages of the children that I got to play with tonight!

Radley (3), Caroline (2), Annaliese (1), and Emersyn (0) were all in my care and supervision while the HMMs went to a FCA banquet! 

Not going to lie; I was a little nervous especially when I was welcomed into my garage by a "present" left by RYAN's dog (that's a whole 'nother blog post)... but I rallied and succeeded!

And who wouldn't be excited about playing with this crew...

The picture above describes our four children perfectly:

Radley: microphone in hand, silly expression on face, mouth open so he can be as loud as possible

Annaliese: microphone in hand, cute expression on face, mouth up to microphone so she can be as loud as possible

Caroline: taking care of Emmy/being a mommy

Emmy: sitting contently letting Caro "take care" of her and be the mommy.

Our kids are a mess! And we love it! (most of the time)

Now, I am an "achiever" and all, but I wasn't about to tackle an extravagant dinner tonight. So we all shared in my favorite selection: brinner... also known as breakfast for dinner.  It's so nice to have a bunch of self-sufficient kiddos to watch. Dinner was actually a breeze... the hardest thing about it was trying to keep Emmy's attention long enough to shovel food in her mouth feed her dinner. 

You never realize just how many toys your child has until friends come over. Then they somehow manage to find every toy with every tiny piece attached and then all pieces end up in toys that you never knew existed (follow that?). To avoid this situation, we have learned to let the kids pick one room to destroy and go from there. Luckily tonight, they picked the train table which isn't that much of a mess at all. The "choo choos" and giggles that came from a quick game of "Radley telling everyone how to play with a train table" reminded me just how much they are actual growing up since I am used to hearing "mine" "no" "stop", etc... followed by some tears. 

But these big kids were all smiles tonight! I even dared to give them a bath... all at once. By myself! Why, yes I am now accepting Mom gold stars!

In that moment, as I was going down the assembly line of washing tiny human body parts, I laughed at myself thinking that I was "so under control". I mean, there are tons of women that do this every. single. night. with their basketball team of kids. Now, those mom's deserve a gold star (or a bop on the head for being cray cray... kidding). 

After bath, we all got dressed, played some more, picked up our toys and then snuggled on the couch for some movie time! Ryan got home in time to eat and get them settled while I put Emmy to bed. They all got some snacks and were being so sweet. I actually told them thanks for being so sweet when Caroline replied, "I always sweet to my boyfriend, Rad King." Seriously... you can't make up that cuteness!

 And then the quiet lasted for about.... 15 minutes. 

Movie nights are no fun when you 3-2-1. 

More books, toys and games are much more exciting!

So exciting that we have to make silly faces when Mom tries to take a picture! (Seriously, what are these two doing? Radley looks like a pirate with a giant eye and Caro just has this cute smirk... oh they make me smile). 

We finally settled on some Dr. Seuss and were finished in time for Cindy and Josh to pick up the girls. And as I type this up to remember my "first time with all four" I think of all the future times that "all four" will be together and it makes me want to cry... because from play dates to prom dates the time will go by in a flash.