Babysitting

We helped out our friends the Stansberrys by watching their three kids Friday night. We also did a babysitting swap with the McKenzies for Valentine's Day, so we had Brenna here as well. If you're keeping score, that means we had a total of six children in our house.

I got some Little Caesar's Pizzas and baked some leftover cookie dough from Thursday night. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and after some pretty crazy running around, the kids settled into their places. The youngest was 3 year-old Katie Stansberry, who ended up watching Cinderella with Amanda and me. The others ended up playing video games in the basement.

Of course, the evening had a few incidents. I had to rescue 6 year-old Ben after he got himself stuck on my pull-up bar. Katie managed to climb up onto the pool table and couldn't get down. This was after she found her way up to Noah's top bunk and couldn't get down. We didn't get anything outrageous like Jake asking to borrow a reciprocating saw, so it really was a good time.

The only downside was that it was the second consecutive night of our kids going to bed around 10:00. As she was getting ready for bed Lily seemed really frustrated. She asked us, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to control all those crazy kids?" I was really glad she couldn't see my face when she said that because I was rolling around laughing. She felt like it was her job to keep order.

Last night Bill and Brenna came over while Amanda and I went out. Lily got to bed at her normal time, which was good. I still think she and Noah are going to bed a little early tonight.