Observations from Nine Children

On Saturday night we hosted a sleepover with my kids and their cousins. The event was originally supposed to include two cousins, but it turned into five. Things went pretty smoothly, for the most part. On Sunday morning, Scotty had church meetings starting at 7:00. That's the part I forgot about until late Saturday night when I had a kind of, "Oh!" moment. That left me to feed nine* kids breakfast, and get six of them ready for church by myself (three of them were being picked up by their mom at 9:30).

We had a lot of fun, and somehow I managed to get everyone fed, bathed, and dressed except for Eva, whom Scotty bathed and dressed. During the several hours I was responsible for nine children, I observed the following:

1. Meals for nine children are best served outside. Especially when the meals include rice.

2. Labeled cups are a must.

3. My family room isn't big enough. One kid was practically in the hall, and I'm pretty sure at least one kid ended up under the couch at some point... and there were only seven in there.

 

4. Diapers multiply very quickly when you have five kids in the house that need nighttime support.

5. When half the kids are night owls and half the kids are early birds, no one gets any sleep.

We had a great time having the cousins over. We forced the kids to play outside until dark. Our neighbor was having a huge party with a live band, so we acted like it was our party and our band while we hung out in the backyard. We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner and sundaes for dessert. Grandma and Grandpa made an appearance to say hello (it was kind of like when Santa shows up at a Christmas party).

When we came inside, the girls took baths and had their hair brushed. The boys got to sleep in their own filth and shower in the morning. We watched a movie and only two kids fell asleep. At midnight we bid them goodnight and turned off the lights.

In the morning, they started stirring at 7:30. The earliest risers went outside to play for a while. I made two 9x13 German pancakes, which they downed within minutes. There were strange arguments over milk ("I'm only allowed to drink milk with a yellow lid"), and hopefully, at some point, teeth were brushed, but I'm not really sure.

At 9:30, three kids went home, and the rest of us set out for church at 10:35 with minimal crankiness. Frankly, I was impressed.


*Ages 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 3, 2, and 4 months.