So Not Cut Out for This

Holy cow! There is nothing like five little girls spending the night to zap the energy right out of you. I would not make it through this motherhood thing if I had more than one. It will take me the next year to recuperate before I'm ready to do it again. And these are all really sweet girls. There was a jumping on the sofa incident and one of them likes to go through the cabinets (what's that about?), but all in all, they got along and played well together. And I'm still completely shattered.

The only creatures worse off than me this morning may be the bunnies. They were a big hit with the kids, but after an afternoon and then a morning of playtime, I think the bunnies may be completely traumatized.

I made a terribly tacky version of a cake shaped like an I-pod that Maddie saw on a web site. It tasted great, but I won't be showing any pictures. For dinner (per Maddie's request), we had hot dogs, mash and green peas along with cheese and onion potato chips. Then the girls busted out on Maddie's new karaoke machine. The only bump there was that one of the little girls isn't allowed to watch Hannah Montana, so she didn't know any of the songs on that disk and was feeling left out until we switched over to Lion King. For a movie, there were many good choices of things we had DVR'd, and they chose what may be the dumbest movie I have ever seen--Dudley Do Right. They laughed and laughed and laughed. Perhaps I'm just not the target audience.

Maddie's room was one big bed. with her trundle bed pulled out and two more mattresses on the floor, there was no "non-bed" space to walk on. They pulled out all these books and read to each other. Then when the lights went out, there was more talking and giggling and talking and giggling. This is a little house, so no quiet corner could be found. As Skip and I were lying in bed waiting for the silence so we could sleep, we were comforted by the fact that they just sounded like they were having so much fun. They finally went to sleep a little before midnight and were up at 6:30 this morning. Skip went off into London to pick up Krispy Kreme donuts per Maddie's request, and then I made scrambled eggs to try and slow the blood sugar spike induced by the donuts.

More karaoke, more bunny time and a trip to the park got us to parent pick-up time. Maddie is now in a coma in front of the television. Skip has gone out for a run and I am preparing for our guests to come on Monday. Skip is leaving tomorrow a.m.for the US. But first, there is Girl Scout Father/Daughter bowling out in one of the western burbs this afternoon. I imagine Maddie will fall asleep in the car on the way.

But she had a great time, and if she can recover for school on Monday, all should be right with the world.


Oh, and I just had to include this e-mail that we got from elementary school principal at Maddie's school. Bizarre!

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lentz

Dear Parents,

We had two wonderful Middle School field trips - Grade 6 just returned from Scotland and Grade 7 from France. All students returned safely, having had a stimulating and enjoyable trip. I would like to make you aware that when the Grade 7 bus arrived a parent noticed that there were two uninvited passengers under the bus. I am pleased to inform you that our Security Coordinator, Mr. Malcolm Richards, immediately responded and escorted the two young men to our transport office. The police were telephoned and they responded quickly to question and escort the two young men off campus. Apparently they were refugees who had been hanging on the undercarriage of the bus from when the bus left France.

I want to reassure you that the students were not involved and most were not even aware that there was a problem.

Ginger G. Apple
Head of School
ACS Hillingdon