C’est La Vie

Oh, imaginary friends. I feel like we are growing apart. My silly work schedule at my silly job is draining me this year. Teaching is so intense right now that by the time I get home, I am exhausted. And because we are digital this year, I am also going blind from staring at an iPad screen, a laptop screen, and a Smartboard screen all day. Sitting down at a computer at night is the last thing I feel like doing these days.

Another thing draining my time lately? My children and their constant need to bicker. That is, of course, when they aren’t making fart noises, making snoring noises, or making any other kind of obnoxious noise that makes the other complete fall apart in giggles while I silently want to gouge my eyeballs out with cocktail toothpicks. Theirs the very definition of a love/hate relationship right now. And standing in the middle of the chaos is Mom. I’m sure there are many blog posts about this new phase we have entered in the near future, but for now I’m choosing to focus on what fun we had this weekend. Because we had a fantastic time!

On Saturday, Chris had to work, so I invited Bean’s best bud, Elle, and her mom, Danielle, to meet us for lunch and then to go see a play at Chris’s theater. We had so much fun! We saw “Ivy and Bean,” and it was perfect for the kids. Bright colors, lots of lights, pretty sets, and fun music. They were captivated through the entire show! It was an hour long, with no intermission, but all three of the kids sat on the edges of their seats the entire time, completely enthralled.

(My pictures are all fuzzy this weekend because I carried my camera for the first time in FOREVER and it seems I have forgotten how to use a real camera!)

After the play, Chris took the kids up on the stage and let them walk and climb all over the set. They tried to open every door, sat on every stoop, and looked in every window. They loved it!

Sunday morning we skipped church (GASP!) and hung around with Chris a little bit. We were able to see him some on Saturday because we were at the theater, but he was working tech rehearsals all weekend, so we didn’t have much time with him. He went to work for a few hours, and then we snuck him out in the afternoon for a while so he could go on our next big adventure with us. A sweet friend gave us her tickets to Sesame Street Live last week. She won this awesome VIP ticket package in a Facebook giveaway, and her grandkids were too big to want to go. Mine were just the right age, and we had a blast!

Gracie was the most mesmerized. Bean got a little fidgety about half way through, but Gracie sat just like this the entire time:

And then in the last 15 minutes, she jumped out of her seat and danced until it was time to go. She was still dancing when I tucked her into bed tonight, actually.

Weekends like this make Mondays feel long and slow, but it is worth it. I lay down on Sunday nights after these kinds of weekends and my heart feels full, my head is blissfully empty, and I say prayers of gratitude for my family. All parts of us. The boring, couch-sitting, cooking-at-home-every-night parts, and the on-the-go, sharing adventures, laughing out loud parts of us, too.

So, yes, my kids are driving me crazy. And, yes, my husband and I are trying to figure out this new phase of our married life. And, yes, work is overwhelming and demanding. But you know what?

Who cares?

Some weekends we live it up. Some weekends we take it easy. Some days we kiss and cuddle. Some days we fight and bicker. C’est la vie.

And my la vie is pretty la awesome.