Adventures in Babysitting

My dear friends are out of the country this week, and I have graciously agreed to house/kid/animal sit while they are away. So, here I am with 4 kids (2 eight year olds and 2 five year olds), 4 dogs, 3 cats, 2 fish, 1 bird, 1 guinnea pig, and 1 snake. WHat could possibly go wrong...right?

Day 1... Smooth sailing.

Day 2... After running kids to school and other assorted errands, I stopped to fill the car up with gas. As I swiped my card and went to open the gas-hatch, I realized it was locked. After several minutes of searching, in vain, for a button or nob to pop the hatch, I finally broke down and called David in Amsterdam. Me: "Hi! No, nobody's bleeding... I just...er, can't get the gas-hatch opened at the gas station. THe button's where? Ohhhhhh, ok, thanks. Have a nice trip!"
Problem solved. Later that night, we discovered that one of the dogs had chewed up a Karate belt accidently left within reach. Many tears ensued. Still, things are going relatively well...

Day 3... The kids wanted to take a bath all together in the jet tub. It's big enough, so why not? First, Ethan got his foot cut on one of the jets. While I was downstairs finding a bandaid, the other 3 started a naval battle of mythic proportions. After getting everyone out and into pajamas, it took approximately 40 minutes to mop up all the water, dry off the windows, walls, and ceiling, and squeegee the dog that was witness to the event...

Day 4... Ohhhh boy. This is where things get dicey! Western Washington is having its first severe weather storm of the season. Thursday's wind gusts were "tornado-like". About half an hour before I needed to leave to pick kids up from school., the power went out. Ok, fine... except that the car is in the closed garage with power doors. hmmmmm. Fortunately charma was on my side, and the power blipped on for about one minute; just long enough to hit the button and get out. Oh, and of course I shut it when I left.
It then took me about 40 minutes to drive across town, due to power outages and no traffic lights. After loading all 4 kids in, and stopping at Safeway for some bread (It is a scientifically proven fact that children can exist for days on peanut butter and jelly alone), we returned home. The power is out, but no problemo- I have a housekey. A brand-new-never-been-tried housekey, shiny and freshly ripped off the cardboard. Can you imagine my shock when the darn thing didn't work??? With 4 kids whining about having to sleep outside, I made rounds around the house, but to no avail. Finally, I managed to nearly break the key forcing it into the lock and barely turning it. Whew!
Safely inside, I went about gathering candles, flashlights, boardgames, blankets, prestologs, and making several pb&j sandwiches. Then we secured everyone in the master bedroom for our "Slumber Party". I managed to get the prestolog started, and only set off the smoke detector twice (a personal best, I think!) Oh what fun! Flashlight battles, reading by candlelight, eating junkfood (If Lisa is reading this... I mean carrot sticks! yes! Healthy foods!) And by 8:00 we were all ready for sleep. By we, I of course mean me, as they were all still bouncing about...
Finally, I got everyone settled. With three of us in the King bed, and 2 in sleeping bags on the floor--- forget John-boy, this was what we heard:
Ethan(5): "Samantha, I'm going to marry you someday."
Samantha (5): "I don't think so! I'm gonna choose my own man!" (said as she's snuggling with Carter(8)!
Ethan: "ok."
And... goodnight!

Day 5 and 6... With the power back on, life has returned to some form of normalcy. In the last 48 hours we have had three baby teeth fall out, for a total of 2 visits from the Toothfairy. Very, very exciting indeed! After 3 hours of soccer in the rain this morning, I'm pretty happy that we don't have to leave the house again until tomorrow. The kids are downstairs playing Wii (wonderful invention!) and I am enjoying a bit of quiet time before dinner. Yes, I'm sure that the next 2 days will be calm and adventure free... right?

I had some cool weather pics to upload, but Blogger seems to be having some trouble... sorry!