Day, Interrupted

We had another weird day today, but we made it.  We had to be out of our house from 11-2 for a Realtors' Open House (keep your fingers crossed that something comes of it!).  That meant, we had to clean the house last night, but not clean everything because, let's face it, three small children brushing their teeth are going to destroy the bathroom counter again in the morning!  Oh, and of course, there's breakfast to clean up and not pulling out every toy...
Anyway, we made it.  We managed to all hang out in our little bitty play room and do some school work and play with only so many toys at one time.  Everybody actually did a pretty good job in the playroom all together.  Ford did his handwriting and math.  Rachel did her handwriting and math.  She also read aloud for us and we all did her Language Arts together.  We read a nonfiction book about weather and talked about some facts that we learned.  After that, everyone went nuts while I finished cleaning up all the final things (like removing things to the car that were in the way, vacuuming one last time, etc.)  I think we left the house in pretty good shape and got out of the house by 9:30.  I couldn't stand the thought of messing things up too much, so we went ahead and ate a snack in the car, went through the drop off at the library with some books, drove around town for a little while, watched a train go by, and then went to my mother's house.  While we were there, we tried to not leave the TV on the entire time (since they think TV and eating are the only two activities allowed at Baba's house!).  Mom was at a meeting, so I pulled out the crayons, coloring books, puzzles, and assorted toys and we had a fun time playing with new things.  Ford found some dot-to-dots in a couple of the books.  Rachel found some color by number (or letter) and Ruby found some stickers.  They did such a good job playing, I let them watch a show while I got lunch ready.  Then we turned the TV off again and finished lunch (they started eating while watching, but there wasn't much eating going on!).  We played and took potty breaks and cleaned up all the toys.  Then we all got settled on the couch with blankets and turned on a Tinkerbell movie.  I was hoping Rachel and Ford would rest and Ruby would sleep.  I think I was the only one to actually close my eyes!!  After Tinkerbell, Ford watched one Thomas episode and Ruby watched some Tickety Toc thing.  We had a popsicle and then it was time to come home.  Rachel and I finished up her school work.  We made different types of clouds with glue sticks and cotton, we looked at clouds in a weather book, and we recorded our weather information on our chart for the day.  Then we talked about oceans on maps and on globes.  She added the Atlantic Ocean to her map of our state and felt pretty good about all she had accomplished today.  (FYI Ruby fell asleep on the way home and slept through Science and Social Studies.  Ford was so happy to see his trains again, that we didn't see him for a good 45 minutes!).  Then we went outside for some soccer once Ruby woke up.  She was a grouch for the rest of the day and after eating dinner with Allen and sending him on his way, I told the kids we would have a dance party and then it was time for bed!  We started bedtime at 6:00 since no one had gotten a good nap or rest.  Ford was asleep by 6:45.  At 7:45 I was still fighting with Ruby to lay still and trying to convince Rachel that she should stop thinking about how horrible last week's violin lesson was.  She's terrified that she's never going to have a good lesson again and it's keeping her awake!!!  Help!!  I told her to picture all the clouds in her mind that we talked about and to cuddle up with her stuffed animals and I think she finally went to sleep.  I haven't been back in to check on Ruby because I don't want to start all over again if she's not asleep yet, but I guess I'll go in there in a little while and hope that everyone's snoozing.  It's been quiet, at least, for the last 30 minutes, so that's a start!