Sleepover with Kristen, Katya, Jack, and Ben

I had the honors of watching the kids on Saturday night for Rachael and Derrick. Lori, Anthony, and Natalie came over and helped by making dinner of baked macaroni, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and green beans then cleaned up the kitchen. Lori even offered to watch the two girls, but Kristen told her that she had just had a sleepover at Lori's house and she just wanted to stay there because I was there to have a sleepover with them. Following dinner, we were all going to get some ice cream, I decided to just take the kids to rent some movies and get some ice cream for root beer floats.
Let me tell you... this new booster seat law can be very interesting with three kids in boosters in the back of a small car. First, we'd get Jack all locked in, then place Katya's seat down and get her seat belt on, then I would have Ben sit in his seat and slide it towards the open door as I reached over and snapped his seat belt on, then scoot him over as far as I could so I could get the door shut. Just imagine all of that super-fun-chore with three kids arguing and "accidentally" hitting each other every now and then!
We headed to the movie rental place and at one point I asked Ben if he was telling the truth about something or other and this 4-year-old answers with "I will put my hand on the Bible and tell the truth!" Just out of nowhere, too! It was so funny!
Once we arrived at the movie rental place, I had to have each kid get out and stand on the sidewalk so I could help the next kid out of the cluster of car seats in the back, then I gave them a talk on staying really close to me and being really good and quiet in the store. All started pretty good, we got three movies. I felt like a mother hen, trying to get all the little chicks together while giving my name and phone number and money to this guy and I have no idea how long I rented those movies for, but I tried to hurry. Of course, a couple of times the kids would start opening the little mini freezers with ice cream and I would try to get them to come over to me and then I thought that I should have them stand right next to the exit door because no one was in front of me, so they wouldn't block anybody and be out of the way, but of course, Katya decides to walk right back to where all the cashier people are and the guys trying to tell her no, and she's just wondering around like she's shopping (or snooping!) and I'm trying to get the guy to hurry it up with the movies, so I can get out of there! Wow! Finally, we got out of there, just to do the huge seat belt thing, again, so we could literally cross the street to go to the grocery store for the ice cream... what was I thinking???
Whatever happened to those leashes for kids?
Well, root beer floats turned into vanilla ice cream, frozen blueberries, peaches, and strawberries (for smoothies), round chips for nachos and cheese for dipping, cheese puffs, salted peanuts in the shell (which we never got to), and root beer. I just don't understand why cashiers tend to take forever when it's obvious that I have four curious kids running around the store and I'm trying to hurry and get out of there! I thought it'd be great to have all the kids hold something, but Katya ended up dropping the 2 liter of root beer, which turned out to be an interesting little "opening" event in the back yard. After another seat belt moment, we headed home and stayed there for the night.
Everyone got jobs when we got home. Katya had to take the little dog potty, Kristen was on smoothie duty, Ben was in charge of the root beer floats, Jack took care of the nachos and setting up the movie. After a little arguing over which movie to watch, I had the kids draw numbers* and Ben got number 1 so he chose the first movie to watch. After getting all the drinks and snacks all settled, we headed downstairs to watch the movie. Jack was the host, so if anyone needed something, we'd ask Jack for it and he'd hook us up. It was great!
I was told to get Katya to bed a little early, so I sent her to bed, but it took about an hour or so for her to actually get there without getting up for the bathroom or taking the little dog potty or blowing her nose or playing with a flashlight... After Katya and Stella left for bed, the first time, Kristen and Jack were telling me that I would need to go up there in the middle of the night to take her potty because she usually wets the bed or sometimes poops! What? Are you serious? Yes! I have go up there and wake her up to go to the bathroom or she will poop in the bed? Yes! So, basically, I thought they were talking about Katya while they were actually talking about Stella, and I didn't realize it until about two hours when I was about to go up there to wake Katya up and take her to the bathroom! I thought that was a pretty well kept secret too! Ha-ha!
We had planned to sleep downstairs, but because Katya was in her room, I decided that we should all sleep upstairs. I got to carry both Ben and Jack (asleep but not at the same time) up both sets of stairs and put them in their beds. Then Kristen and I finished the movie and then slept on the living room couches while watching the Olympics. Just before falling asleep, Kristen says, "you know, you're like our mom, but you're not like our mom..." Huh? What do you mean? "I mean, you're like our mom because you're taking care of us and sleeping with us, but you aren't like our mom." Oh. Okay...
(I'm getting really tired, so I'm going to have to stop now and go to bed... Oh, and I can't put any pictures on right now, and I can't figure out why! I'll do more tomorrow!)

*A little side note... when I told the kids that I would have them all 'draw' numbers, Ben came over to me and said, "but I don't know how to draw them!" He was all worried because he couldn't draw (or write) numbers!