Woke up a Tri momma . . .

. . . went to bed a quintet momma.

Today was my last day as a momma of 5.  I, of course intended to make this post last night, but ½ way through it I fell asleep and I decided it best to call it a day. 

Today my cousin came to pick up her kids.  Over the last twelve days we’ve survived countless poopy diapers, 5 days of summer camp, 4 visits to the pool, 3 grandparents visiting (actually, they survived us), 2 theme parks and 1 triathlon.

Here are the "Do's" and one "Don't" I learned about taking care of the little ones again:

1)      DO brush up on your water skills because you can no longer just lounge poolside.  CRAP! – oh, and yes, that is what may come out of the 3 year old’s @$& in the middle of the swim if you forget to remind her to go to the bathroom beforehand.

2)      DO put your game face on!  But, never fear, the game will only last 4 minutes because someone will invariably get upset and the game will be over because there’s too much fighting going on.

3)      DO teach the children to drive – just put padding all over the house . . . and the kids.

4)      DO teach them how to write “for a good time, call . . . “ on the bathroom wall.

Yes, she's standing on a toilet!!!  I promise, they provided the chalk.

5)      DO put them to work.

This was too cute to pass up.  The Superego (oldest) put her baby cousin to work!!!

6)      DO take them to see the sharks!  And no, you can’t throw them in the tank when they throw a tantrum.  I tried, and they didn’t like that at Sea World.

I had just told her that they can come out of their cage and eat little girls.  Was that too far?!

7)      DO plant pumpkins. . . just make sure you put the kids in the picture for show.

We tried to have them help, but we would have ended up with 15 pumpkins all in one place!

 8)      DO bribe them with sugar . . . just make sure you do not do it before you go to the dentist.  Not only will you get caught for letting them eat things they shouldn’t, have you ever tried to tell a sugared up 3 and 2 year old to sit quietly in the lobby?! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this one, but I'm certain we may be asked to find a new dentist.

9)      DO take them shopping . . . just learn your lesson and always put them INSIDE the cart.

10)   DO NOT take them to the fair – ok, this is a Do Not I had to throw in.  This was probably my worst judgment call.  For $100 the kids rode rides that we could have crafted in our backyard and my husband and I just might have lost about 5 years off our lives because of the Tater Dog we ate.

The baby's not quite sure what to make of this whole thing.

12)   DO spend quality time with your family.  It will create memories to last a lifetime!

"Mommy and Daddy went to France and I got this nickname!"

We've survived, mommy's had a glass of wine, and now, it’s back to entertaining myself by torturing just my children!  I’ll have so much extra time I won’t know what to do with myself.

Oh, wait, lets try Camp Runamuk Weird Science day tomorrow!!!  :-)  I'm off to target at 10:20 at night to go buy the provisons (I needed to let the glass of wine wear off first).