Daddy's In Charge

As we are in holiday mode (Columbus Day, that is, for non-government workers) I am letting Jessica have the day off from blogging. Here I am -- Kevin or Daddy for the little ones. Since Christopher Columbus sailed to discover (at least for the Europeans) our country, today is one for this daddy to chart the course of the day. To keep the metaphors and wordplay going. Jessica did a team relay run this morning with her marathon group to stay on course with her training. I was happy to keep an eye on the kids. In one 10 minute period, I was monitoring 6 children, two from each of the mom's that were training this morning. No problem there, but I discovered that any kid, be it my own or someone elses, will beg for food that wasn't supplied by their own family. Hence, I was feeding the one-year olds all sorts of snacks, while the older kids watched Sesame Street Halloween style.

Later in the morning, another daddy joined the fun -- John from work. He had his minivan (Honda Odyssey) in for maintenance nearby so he and his two girls came over for a daddy and daughters playdate. We tore up the basement (and cleaned up nicely afterwards), then headed outside for fun on the swingset for the younger ones, while Madelyn and Merin happily visited at the picnic table eating their Yo-Gos. Yum. Then some pizza for lunch and off the Thomas' went back home.

After a short nap in which I raced around to finish refreshing our landscaping. There is something wrong with planting mums in October when the thermostat reads 90 degrees. The afternoon was low key with Jessica running some errands and Abby helping me re-organize the toy box. Abby also delighted us with a truly cute preview of her Halloween costume -- a monkey. Sorry no picture, but she was adorable.

Then it was off to Jason and Kelly's for a scrumptious but rushed dinner because of the aforementioned short naps. Both girls went to bed exhausted and Jess and I took on respective housekeeping. Now on to some relaxation.

The best part of the day: Two things: Enabling Jessica to get her workout in for the big race this weekend, and watching the girls play nice with plenty of friends all throughout the day.