playdates and pancakes

Yesterday I bundled my tribe into the car and we headed off for a playdate. A friend with two little men the same age as my Monkey Man and Missy Moo graciously offered to host us at their house, and even put the jumping castle up for us - talk about rolling out the red carpet of playdates! Holy crap! My kids were so excited about the jumping castle, which was lucky as I got to hear about it all the way there, in traffic. It was a rather hellishly long drive. Of course once we got there they were more interested in the inside toys and the poor jumping castle sat glistening in the sun, practically begging to be jumped on. Instead they chose to drag all the soft toys off beds, destroy the train table and tip all the toys out of storage units. Hell even the shower toys were dragged out. I spent the entire time telling, asking and telling them to pick that up, put that back, be gentle, stop throwing that all while catching Little Miss as she fell down the single back step over and over and OVER again. Surely once you fell down somewhere once you would learn, or at the very least be hesitant?? Nope, apparently not.

My friend made pancakes for all 5 kids for lunch. Legend! She tolerated the noise of 5 under 5 alot better than I did. I found myself saying 'inside voices' quite a few times which was rather fruitless given they couldn't even hear me over their own noise. She worked til 3am. I mean, seriously, what a legend! No way would I be hosting 5 hooligan, hyped up, over excited kids after such little sleep. Hosting a gathering of small people is full on enough with a decent nights sleep let alone when you're running on empty. And as for pancakes, I'm seriously lucky to have enough bread or fruit for all the kids when I host a gathering. and I certainly don't have a jumping castle. Yep, my friend is a mummy legend!!!

So, we came, we trashed, we ate them out of bread and fruit, we tantrummed, and then we left! All three monkeys were asleep in the car within minutes of hitting the road and I was tempted to drive far far away and let them sleep. If I hadn't needed petrol I would have done just that. Instead Monkey Man woke when we got home and refused to go back to sleep, meaning a very LONG afternoon for all of us. The girls slept, thankfully, as three cranky kids is enough to drive me to drink. For real. 

Maybe in my next life I can be a awesome hostess with the mostest?? Maybe this book will give me some much needed tips? Could you imagine it?

You bring the wine, I'll bring the cork screw? 
You bring the vodka, I'll bring the mixer? 
Kids? what kids? hic, oh they're fine

 **cheers**