What a difference a day makes

Thursday we were not doing well.  The boys ignored my requests to be ready for school at 9am and were still downstairs "making their beds" when I dragged them upstairs and away from their discussion about Minecraft.  Then right as we were finally getting started we heard a crash and Mr. 1 had managed to pull an entire pan of granola off the counter and was happily sitting in the middle of the disaster having a snack.  While I cleaned this up I told the boys to get started on their writing prompt.  "But Daddy forgot to write one!"  So I told them to start with "Oh no Micah!  What have you done?"  and write from there.

The day continued with general discontent, including a tantrum by Mr. 3 at the park who refused to come home until I promised to make him hot chocolate (he did not get hot chocolate but did get dragged home).  No one wanted to finish school, including me.  Mr. 1 woke up right as I finished getting Mr. 3 down for a nap.  We were late to swimming lessons.  I was about to give up on the whole day when Mr. 3 asked if we could have a pumpkin bread party after I told him we couldn't have cookies.  What is a pumpkin bread party? I asked.  You eat pumpkin bread and listen to music and have a dance party.  Yes, we could do that.  And it turned the day around - we even made cookies in the end which was our Advent activity of the day.

Friday we had to be out of the house early.  After dropping Mr. 3 off at preschool, we stopped to have bagels and all three of the boys were cheerful and helpful.  We went to the library and I told them to pick out some books they hadn't checked out before (Mr. 7 really picks out the same 30 or so books in shifts - all on robots, space, cross sections, or Star Wars).  Mr. 7 found some cool books on inventions.  Mr. 9 checked out books on ancient civilizations.  We went home and I told them that we would work on a project rather than school and they spent the morning reading books and working diligently on a secret project.   Everyone had a good time at the MFA, we chatted with Nana and Papa, and we even had a fun dinner with friends.  And now we have 11 days off and together!