Family Time

I am a firm believer that kids SHOULD be allowed to watch TV I’m not gonna lie to you on average me and the kids are probably watching 2-3 hours of TV a day I try to keep it on wholesome shows and my kids are supposed to alternate. Even though I am really lenient with tv time I am not okay with screens anywhere else no tablets or smart phones in the car, outside, and in bedrooms. (Kallie tries to sneak her phone to her bed alot.) 

Even though we use the TV a lot in our house once a month I try not to do a day with absolutely no TV and we usually succeed. I LOVE these days they are the craziest most hectic 360 days around. Yesterday we succeeded in a no TV day. Here’s how it went. 
We started off the day just me and the littles I picked them up from thier step mom and they were full of energy and ready for the day. First thing we did we went at 8:30 am and got coffee at our local coffee shack. (now here in Utah coffee is hard to find but beans and brews is deffinately the best in Utah county) Mom gets a chai tea latte and babies got “Cold Hot chocolate” with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. Luckily they do kids drinks here for $1 or so. Then we head home and when we get home we go straight into cleaning up our mess from when we left. (yes I left blocks and trains and Shopkins on my floor for three whole days until the kids got home. Afterward we played table top billiards yup that’s right billiards that fits on a small table. In the midst of the kids practicing to Hussle some drinks out of thier money, a fight breaks out there is tears everywhere fingers pointed at each other and we get a time out on sepperate bar stools. All is well though at the end of their time out they are making funny faces at each other and after their 3 minute jail sentence everyone is set free.  

The kids head outside to play and I go switch laundry and unload my dishwasher. By the time I get outside the kids have both the horses against the fence and are feeding them dandilions. We play tag hide and pretend I can’t see you standing crouched behind the swing. This hold their attention for a bit and then the kicker. 

We make play dough ya thats right you heard that correctly. Make playdough. That only takes a few minutes and the kids are happy long enough. For me to make funeral potatoes for a ward members funeral. We play play dough for about sixty minutes while we wait for the potatoes to cook. When their done we run over to the church to drop them off and as me and the kids head back to the car little brother steps on a bee and not on accident but sees a bee land on the ground and BOOM hard diliberate stomp. This sends sister into a fit of name calling including the dreaded naughty word. We have a ten minute conversation in the hot sun about why we shouldn’t kill bugs on perpose and why we shouldn’t call people names. Again we hug and we are all friends again. 

We go out to artic circle and grab a few corn dogs. Meet some great people have some good conversations grab some ice cream and we are off to nap. This knocks out a huge chunk out of our day and I get a chance to read my scriptures. 

When Dad gets home we proceed to get dinner started and while dinner is being made dad and kids are playing outside swinging blowing up water balloons and just having fun. Surprisingly no one comes in the house wet everyone is astonishingly dry from head to toe. As I’m hearing tales of daring balloon competitions and adopted balloon children dad Sears the thin cut button round on the grill along with some whole wheat sandwich rolls. There is mushrooms onions and peppers reducing in a robust sauce for our yummy sandwiches. Then as dad comes in with fresh off the grill beef the timer for my second batch of funeral potato’s goes off. Then as I’m assembling sandwiches I think we need more veggies so I pull a bagel of steamable bag of corn. Pop it in the microwave send the kids to wash up. Which is a battle dad quickly ensues and for the first time in a while everything is finished in about the same second. I am satisfied. 

During dinner the oldest decides bowling sounds really fun. She starts to talk about how when she was little we went bowling with her bio dad and how she wishes we could go with him again. Instead of letting my own feelings through I put on my biggest smile and tell both kids how much fun sister had and how tiny brother was. We laugh and clean out plates. As we  clean up we decide as a family bowling would be a great idea. We hop in dad’s “truck” which is Klausin’s favorite vehicle. 

As we get to the bowling Alley we have so much fun chasing kids away from the arcade games eating tater tots and drinking juice it takes us an hour to finish one game. And it is the funnest hour with laughing, and defiance.  We were making a whole lot of Noyes. 
When we head home we get the kids in jammies and cuddle in the rocking chair while Daddy decides to read our copy of book of Mormon stories. We read a few chapters then take turn cuddling the kiddos to sleep. I then get myself ready to go work my graveyard shift knowing I did my best and even though I am not perfect my husband isn’t the quitest and my kiddos aren’t angels I know we love each other and that’s enough for me.