Monday, May 22, 2006

A Fun Evening

Danny & I spent Friday evening with five children ages 8 months - 3 yrs. Do we know how to have fun, or what??

The reason for the madness was so our good friends Alan & Erin could have a date night. They're going to return the favor next month. This is a wonderful way to get some time away and not drain the monthly entertainment budget in one night.

The odd thing was, we actually had a lot of fun. Not that we were expecting it to be awful, but we didn't think we'd have such an entertaining evening.

Wierdly enough, somewhere between the chaos of all five of them yelling at the top of their lungs during dinner, and the lump of poop we found stuck to the toilet after our trip to the park, I made some surprising discoveries.

1. Looking after five really doesn't seem like that much more work than looking after three. (of course, it was only one evening, and this in no way means we want to have any more!)

2. This toddler/preschoool thing certainly has its challenges, but it is the most adorable age! Before we had children, I used to wish they could come out of the womb and be at least in fifth grade. I have always enjoyed teenagers, but young kids scared me to death. Now, sometimes I think I would do anything to keep them from growing up. I found myself crying this weekend just thinking about my three kids graduating from high school someday.

There are difficult days when I am tempted to begin a countdown to college, but mostly I cling to every moment with them as a priceless gift from God. And I was wrong . . . You can actually have an interesting conversation with a three-yr-old!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rachel isn't your typical three year old. She amazes me with some of the things that come out of her mouth. Zeke, well, he is the instant re-play man. If you missed what someone said earlier....he repeats it word for word in his husky little voice. Can you imagine what he will sound like AFTER his voice changes.And Kari, I think she is just taking everything in for now to use it to her advantage in a year or so. Look out!

Anonymoooooo

jason said...

I've had plenty of interesting conversations with Rachel. The fact is, shes smarter than me. I'm not afraid to admit it.

Anonymous said...

Oh Charity!!! Trust me!!! HOLD on to all those crazy sweet times with your kids!!!!! The days and years go by WAY too fast!!! From your old friend who knows... lg :)

~~anna~~ said...

oh charity once again after reading your blog I am encouraged, smiling and laughing! Thanks! You and your family are truly a blessing in many ways!

Anonymous said...

i am so excited to be babysitting your kids again! i'll be in town june 1, so tell me what works.

Charity said...

Katie, I'm so afraid that you won't be nearly as fond of our munchkins after spending several hours of quality time with them! But hey, for a night of adult conversation, it's a chance I'm willing to take. :-)

Would sometime on Friday (the 2nd) work?

Matt Strader said...

you guys should have 3 more, I'm already recruiting for the youth group to grow.