Pleasing Everyone

Last week on Friday Mica had 3 friends over to study lemurs. They have their pop quiz this week, and they go to the zoo to study them. I checked out a lot of books on lemurs from the library, and got a lemur movie.

Of course  Morgan Freeman was the narrator. 

Source

The kids were all given a PowerPoint, and study guide to go over as well. 

Kid number 1 walked in the door. He was wondering why we have bones all over our front porch. Hummm....Halloween. 

Kid number 2 came to the door with a bag of food. She's a super picky eater. She can't have red sauce, or many fruits because of her acid reflex. 

Kid number 3 came to the door. Her mom was annoyed because arrangements were made with her father. She's divorced. She didn't know about the event until last minute. Nor did she know about the time it started. 

My husband held up the event. Let's just say he's a wonderful Dad! He just should have communicated to kid number 3's mom better. It's not his fault. He pretty much had the other kids all day because their parents had to work.

Isaak's friend called and he wanted to come over. Kid number 4 showed up. It was good because little brothers can be in the way at times. Thankfully they played video games, did artsy things with his scratch board and played with his Thomas trains stuff quietly in his room.

Lunch time was coming soon. I bought pizzas, brats, there were raw veggies, and fruit. There was soda as a choice. We won that at the Fall Festival. It's not something I buy regularly.

Kid number 1: I don't eat pork of any kind. I'm a conservative Christian. I also don't drink soda.

We never heard that one before. Muslims not eating pork, we've heard of. Travis offered him leftovers: A beef brisket. He was happy with that.

Kid number 2: I can't have red sauce if you're serving pizza. I don't drink soda.

No worries I bought an alfredo sauce pizza because I knew she couldn't have red sauce, since she was at Mica's birthday party. Travis made her pizza, she took 2 bites of 1 piece and didn't eat anymore. 

Kid number 3: I love pizza and soda! I'll only eat raw veggies with Ranch Dressing.

No worries I bought Ranch Dressing just because I knew this girl was coming over, and I know she likes Ranch Dressing from previous play dates.

Kid number 4: Wasn't picky. He didn't drink soda either. 

Crazy picky eaters. You just can't please everyone.

At least the lemur study group went well.  

Play Date Daddy

One thing I've learned is that play dates aren't as easy as they used to be. They are actually hard! Some people don't RSVP for parties. Some people just don't call back. Others don't do what they say they are going to do.

We've been having problems with one of Mica's play dates - the Father actually. His daughter is a sweet little thing. The Dad is nice, too nice. He lets his kids run the show.

Play Date Daddy asked if Mica could hang out with his girls? 

Daddy said, "Ok, but he'll have to be home by 5 for dinner because we have plans to go shopping." Plate Date Daddy said, "I'll take them out to eat and to play miniature golf." 

Daddy agreed. We did our thing. Then at 7:30 Daddy calls and says, "Should we come pick up Mica or are you dropping him off?" 

Play Date Daddy says, "We haven't eaten anything yet. The kids wanted to play instead. Do you want me to stop off some place to grab something to eat?" 

Daddy replies, "No you can just take Mica home." 

We eat anywhere around 5:30 to 6:30. Mica got home at 8 (his bedtime) and was starving! I had dinner warmed up for him. He brushed his teeth, and had a bath and went right to bed. Did I mention that it was a school night?

Daddy didn't want to blow up at Play Date's Daddy. He felt something had to be said though. He's supposed to be the Dad, not a buddy.

I said, "Just wait and let me think of how to deal with this situation." So I thought...This is what I came up with...

Here's my made up scenario: 

If Play Dates Daddy wants Mica to come over Daddy can say, "It's your child's turn to come to our house." 

The following time after that when he asks, Daddy can say, "Sure, but Mica needs to be home at 5:30 because that is when we eat at our house." 

If Play Date Daddy says, "Oh I'll take them somewhere to feed them." 

Daddy can say, "Our boys are used to eating at 5:30 or 6. That's just when we eat."

If Play Date Daddy keeps insisting Daddy can say, "The last time Mica was with you, you mentioned that you were going to take them out to eat. That didn't happen. Mica can hang out with your girls, but not at dinner time. 

Hopefully no pissed off people. Play Date Daddy just went through a divorce and seems like he wants to be the fun parent. I don't know what all happened, but somehow he got most of the custody. I don't think our little situation here needs to add stress to anyone.

So we had a plan in store for what was to be said if Play Date Daddy asked for Mica to come over.

Daddy went to pick up Mica at school. Daddy said, "Mica you have a choice you can play on the playground for a bit, or we'll go home and watch a movie." Mica chose a movie. 

Mica ran up to Play Date Daddy and said, "I'm going home to watch a movie." 

Play Date Daddy said, "Mica you can come over to our house if you want." 

Mica said, "Nope I'm watching a movie." As he walks away he says, "Next time I come over, you should feed me dinner. That didn't happen the last time." 

Daddy doesn't think Play Date Daddy heard Mica. It would be so funny if he did! 

Play Date

Mica's been playing with friends more.

There's a girl two houses down from us he's played with. She has an older brother in second grade. I'm thinking we should have them over again. They go to the Y sometimes.

He's played with a boy that he really likes. I wish he'd play with him more because he talks about him all the time. He lives further away. So far we've only asked him to come over.

He likes two kids from the Y that go to his school. Their Mom is the head of the family gym time. Mica hasn't officially played with them, but likes them. They seem to have fun at the Y. One is a girl in the other kindergarten class and the other is a boy in first grade.

Mica's played the most with little girl who is in his class and has a tom boy sister in first grade. They have a little boy from Mica's class over often as well. Mica likes playing with all of them. Mica had the little girl over last week.

Did you notice that their heads are tilted the exact same way? I didn't notice this until I uploaded the photo's on the computer.

 I hid her face for privacy purposes.

In this shot they are both picking their lips. Mica got this horrible habit from me. I pick my lip when I'm nervous or thinking hard. It's such a bad germy habit!

I Have My Living Room Back!

The tree is down. Mica and Isaak wanted to help a little too much. I suppose that's a good thing. No ornaments are broken. They just were pulling on the beads and twisted them up a bit. Nothing that couldn't be undone. Now I just need to sweep where the tree was. Daddy needs to take the boxes downstairs.

Mica had his first play date yesterday. We cleaned house then. I learned that having a friend over is a good motivator to cleaning up!

I think he's going to have another tomorrow. Yesterday it was a girl that lives two houses down. He used to sit by her at lunch. She has a brother that's in 2nd grade. If Mica goes to play over there sometime, he can probably play with both kids. Tomorrow I might have two extra boys over. I called one boy's mom, she wasn't home, so I didn't leave a message. Then the other boy's mom I left a message. The crazy thing is that both boys have the same name. They both called me back. One didn't commit for sure, while the other did. The fact that they both have the same name confused me big time! At least with Mica's generation this isn't as common as mine. In my generation there was always more than one Sarah, Jennifer, Michael and Michelle. All names I like, but more than one usually. I am noticing more than one Aiden, Cayden, Landon and Hayden for boys. For girls it's Bailey, Hailey and Kaylee. Of course the spelling of each name is always different.