Friday, January 28, 2011

A Night at Home with the Kids

Last night, Matt had a meeting in the evening, so I had the kids until bedtime.

Matt has these meetings once a month, so I know they are coming and sometimes it can be a very long day with kids that don't want to behave. But last night, we had a great time! The kids were well-behaved, Christian was in a GREAT mood, and everybody got along great!

Here are some highlights of our evening.

1. I asked Courtney what she wanted for supper. I thought, maybe something out of the freezer like chicken patties/ fish sticks. Nope, she said, "Mom, I want sloppy joes." Really Courtney? Can't I make something easy? But she insisted, so sloppy joes it was!

2. Before supper, Megan and Courtney were playing dress-up and Megan pulled out this green cowbody hat she got from grandma Lu for St. Patricks' Day last year. I chuckled when she came down in this outfit.


Do you call this a "Cowboy Princess?"




And of course, she thought it was hilarious when she put it on Christian's head!



3. After supper, I decided to sit down and play a game with them. They had Mouse Trap out the night before and put it together, but we haven't actually played the game in a long time. They are both old enough, so I suggested we play it.




In the past, we've had trouble playing games. Megan, my typical first born, has to win. If she's not winning, she usually gets mad, quits, and sometimes messes up the game (pushing the board, clearing the pieces off the board, etc.).

So last night, I sat down some rules. 1. Don't quit, even if you are losing. 2. Don't ruin the game 3. Have fun!


And we did! The girls played great. They took turns, didn't argue, and it was fun! We had a couple times when somebody was whining because they were losing, but we turned it around and said, "I bet you can beat them!" and then they would get ahead of the other person and giggle!

In the end, we got the entire mouse trap built, Courtney had landed on the cheese wheel, and I landed on "Turn Crank" With this combination, I turned the crank and got Courtney trapped under the cage!! Game over!

By how this game went, it makes me want to play with them every night! I am so glad that Megan is finally coming around and playing games nicely! I think school has helped her with this. Courtney has always liked to play games, so she's never had trouble with it.

4. After game time, it was time to clean up bedrooms. We start at 8 pm and they have until 8:30 to clean their rooms. At 8:30, I went in there and the room was spotless! They are getting so good at cleaning up their room- a little consistency goes a long way! Soon we settled down into our pajamas and I started our evening activity (we don't always read books anymore). Soon enough, Matt walked in the door and finished bedtime up!

It was a great night together!



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