From the daily archives:

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Watching a Wedding With the Circus Crew

January 21, 2009

A few weeks ago Scott’s cousin was married in CA. Since the groom was from Brazil, we were among many friends and relatives that weren’t able to attend the ceremony. The family thoughtfully broadcasted the ceremony live on the internet. I had never attending a wedding this way before.

While we would have preferred to attend the wedding in person and share in their celebration with them, in some ways, it was the easiest way to watch the ceremony with our three kids present.

The kids were able to play during the ceremony without us having to worry about them disturbing anyone else. My daughter made sure that all of the little people were present and lined up to see the ceremony, while my son flew something around the room.

We were able to type messages to the bride and groom and they could talk back to us. My daughter didn’t quite grasp the fact that they couldn’t see her though. Here she is holding up some signs for them.

Eventually they got so out of control that even though they weren’t disturbing any of the other guests, they were disturbing us (first time I was ever body bashed while watching a wedding) so we sent them to their room to play.

Every now and then they’d come out though. At one point my son was marching through the room singing, “Pha-roah, Pha-roh, let my people go, before God smites you with his hand” not your typical wedding song. After the ceremony was over and we got to “talk” to the beautiful bride and groom as well as extended family members, we went back to the kids room.

It appears that they thought a fun way to play quietly was to take every.single. paper out of their binders and scatter them over their entire bedroom. Nice, huh?

We were so thankful that we had the opportunity to share in bride and groom’s special day from the other side of the country. I’m pretty certain though that they won’t be including these pictures in their wedding album. For more pictures that won’t see the inside of a scrapbook, check out We are THAT Family.

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I Never Have to Do Dishes Again

January 21, 2009

in Works For Me Wednesday

I recently discovered a way to entertain and delight my children, while also getting some help in the kitchen.

I let them wash dishes in the sink by hand.

I don’t give them anything fragile. But at almost 3 and almost 5, they are quite capable of scrubbing pots and pans or large bowls…things I can’t squeeze into the dishwasher.

They beg me for the opportunity and it keeps them content for up an hour. I figure I gotta take advantage of this while I can…having my kids beg for the chance to do the dishes is not something I anticipate lasting forever.

I’ve learned a few tricks to keep this successful.

One child is on dish duty at a time. (2 preschoolers at the sink is recipe for trouble).
Be prepared to go through more than your usual amount of soap. Seems the kids think you need a LOT of soap to clean those pots.
I limit them to two or three dishes. I don’t want them to be overwhelmed or to get bored…bored kids armed with the spray house is another hazard.
Remove any important papers at least 3 feet away from the sink…splashing is par for the course.
Sometimes you gotta spot check them b/c even though they scrub that pot for 30 minutes, they can still miss quite a few spots. (I typically sit them on the counter to dry and to a quick touch up later when they aren’t around) They are still getting most of the hard work out of the way with all that soaking.

My son told me last week, “Mom, you never have to do dishes again.” …If I could just get that in writing.