Starting Summer off with a Bang!!

I have been looking forward to summer break since last October.  :)  While I do love that my kids are on the school's early schedule (making fitting in things like piano and sports and homework and playing much easier), I am not going to miss cooking a hot breakfast every morning at 7am.  Since school got out, all we have had is cereal  :0  I am excited to have the kids home, not excited to hear lots of tattling, excited to help them achieve some summer goals, not excited for disrupted naptimes for Ellie, excited to do fun things with kids, not excited for the amount of food my boys currently consume and my frequent trips to the store, but very excited to spend every day with the kids.  I really do love having them at home, even when I need a break and lock myself in the master bathroom with an ice cream cone and a book during "rest time."

So here is a little recap of our first two days of summer break:

Day 1:  We rocked summer
Woke up early, went for a run, came home and Matt had gotten the kids breakfast.  We all went outside and worked in the yard for almost two hours-the kids worked so hard and the yard looks great.  I went to the grocery store, the kids unloaded the car.  We made lunch, did a quick house pick up and then had rest time.  Sydney got to watch a movie in my bed, the boys had to read in their rooms--Derek took a nap?!?  The kids alternately played outside and inside, no TV all day (except for Sydney's rest show).  We went to the library all together and then to Costco.  The kids were very, very good.  After dinner, I sent them all outside while I quickly cleaned up.  We had some friends over for an FHE activity that involved throwing whipped cream pies in faces.  We sat around and chatted while the kids played soccer.  I took Ellie in and put her to bed.  A few minutes later, Sydney fell asleep on my lap outside and the mosquitos came out.  I washed down the whipped cream covered kids and Matt and I watched a movie together.  Great day!  We rocked summer today.

Day 2:  Summer FAIL (about 1:15am)
I awake to hear Ellie crying.  I run bleary-eyed up the stairs to check on her.  As soon as I opened her door I am assaulted with a vile odor.  Vomit.  Oh.No.  I turn on the light and see that she has puke all over the crib, not spit up, full-on puke.  I quickly change her pjs and see that she also has a terrible, TERRIBLE diaper situation.  Not.  Good.  I clean her up, the whole time she is screaming.  I deposit the dirty bedding and jammies in the hall outside her door and cuddle up with her on the rocker.  She starts calming down and I rock and rock and rock and rock her.  About ten minutes later, Zack come to find me to tell me that his stomach hurts.  I lay Ellie in bed and find Zack a barf bucket and put him back to bed.  I settle down on the couch right outside his room.  I doze off.  Ten minutes later I hear it.  Not sure how he ended up throwing up on the carpet and not his bucket, but what do you do?  I get him into the bathroom, cleaned up and make him a bed on the bathroom floor.  Then I take all Ellie's dirty laundry and Zack's laundry and head down to the first floor to start some laundry.  Since the laundry room is right next to the Master bedroom, Matt woke up and asked what was going on.  I got the laundry started and headed back up to clean up the carpet.  It was bad.  I finally laid a towel over it and left it.  I checked on the kids again and fell asleep on the couch.  Ellie woke up two more times, but never threw up again.  She was awake for the day and so I fed her.  She hasn't thrown up again, so that is good.  Matt came in around 6 and took Ellie so I could go back to sleep for a little bit.  So now it is 11:36 am, all of us are still in our pajamas and the middle kids have watched tv all morning.  I did get out our carpet cleaner and take care of Zack's carpet.  I love that thing.

Just kidding, this is definitely not a summer fail.  It is just real life.  There is nothing that makes you appreciate a normal, boring day more than cleaning up puke in the middle of the night!  If we didn't get smacked in the face with reality every now and then, those elusive perfect days wouldn't be all that special.  Time to go, there is a terrible odor coming from Ellie's room.  I just heard her wake up and I am scared to go in there without a HAZMAT suit.  Pray for me.