Feed Me!

Yesterday I babysat my sister's two daughters, Ashlyn's 6 and Emmy's almost 3. Pretty much we can guarantee that within five minutes of arrival, I will hear the following, "Can I have a snack?"

The girls arrived before 11. Sure enough by 11:03 Emmy asks me, "Aunt Missy, can I have a snack?" and heads for the pantry. Since my sister lives 15 minutes away, our kids spend a lot of time together (I've watched both girls when their sitter's ill or out of town and Katy can't take off school - she's a teacher) and they know where the snacks are.

After Emmy retrieves her snack, the other three decide they're hungry too. So they eat.

11:30 rolls around and I start making lunch.

Which is devoured by 12:15, and I take Emmy up to nap in Flynn's bed. Evan retires upstairs as well to play Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the X-Box 360. Flynn and Ashlyn plan to camp out in the guest room and give each other make-overs. After wishing Emmy sweet dreams, I return downstairs to clean up the lunch dishes and whatever else.

After about an hour I hear a loud rumpus emanating from my room, which is just above the kitchen.

5 minutes later four kids come downstairs and I'm told, "Emmy woke up." Hmmm, I wonder why? I was a bit peeved with the older kids because normally Emmy naps for 2 1/2 or 3 hours. But Em was good to go, so they put on their swim suits and headed to the back yard. I filled the pool and they had a blast. I sat outside with them, sipped my water and read a magazine.

"I'm hungry. Can I have something to eat?"

"Me, too! I'm hungry, too!" (echoed three times)

First I retrieved Popsicles.

They were still hungry.

Apples and melon balls were next on the menu.

They were still hungry. They wanted popcorn.

So I made them popcorn.

They've (finally) filled their little bellies, so I thought. By this time is was about 3:30 and I wanted them to be hungry for dinner so I cut them off. I declared, "No more food until dinner."

The girls found a daisy that had gotten blown over and floated it in a cup, adding more and more little daisy-like weed flowers (I don't know what they are, all I know is I didn't plant them). I think it turned out really nice.

They were rather pleased with the end result.

By 4:30 Ashlyn was asking me if I had started cooking dinner yet. It was on the table by 5:15-ish. They ate like I'd been starving them all day. And they asked for dessert, which I had promised them if they all ate well (I really dislike using food as a bribe, but, hey, it works). I made them wait 25 minutes so I could load the dishwasher, wash whatever didn't fit, and generally tidy up. You'd think I was torturing them.

Ice cream was served, appreciated, and sucked down in record time.

Katy picked up the girls around 6:30.

Emmy wanted a snack for the road.