Scotch ....3 fingers, please.

These kids are about to drive me to drink! Today I've had one disaster after another. After breakfast, Emma threw a fit because Andy tore her favorite "magazine" (really and American Girl catalog). While I was making their lunch, Renee emptied the fireplace of all the little stones and tossed them all over the living room carpet, the kid has an arm. During naptime, Andy snuck out of his room went down to my bathroom took the toothpaste and Kevin's toothbrush back to his bathroom where he did heaven knows what with them causing me to have to throw out the toothbrush because he loves to play in the potty. Then he climbed up on the sink, opened the medicine cabinet turned on Emma's Hello Kitty toothbrush and started clearing the shelves of all the (thankfully) childproof-capped medicine. My kitchen floor is covered in chunks of grilled cheese, dried-up and stuck-on Rice Krispies and drips of milk from the "drip-proof" cups. The Christmas tree looks like it was decorated by a deranged elf and there are cookie crumbs under the dining room table where Andy and Emma enjoyed contraband Christmas cookies. I need a glass of something strong before I start wrapping Christmas presents for the girls and boy on Santa's "nice" list. Santa and I need to have a little talk, maybe over margaritas?

Emma's Ballet Recital

I don't know if you've ever seen a 4-year-old perform, but you absolutely should jump at your next opportunity. You never saw anything this adorable/ hilarious. I swear to you, I wanted to run up on the stage just to squeeze her when it was over.

The YMCA ballet classes performed a Christmas program at the senior center. All the girls wore red leotards and white tutus with sequence. Emma's class danced to "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". So there she was with 7 other girls. The look on her face when she was performing was priceless. You could see the pride in her eyes as she mimicked her teacher who was in the back of the auditorium. She performed flawlessly as did maybe 2 other girls. The rest were standing or waving, one was crying. Then the girls had to gallop in a circle, but only 5 of them wanted to. The other 2 were planted firmly in their spots until the circle met them. Then the traffic stalled. I could see Emma up there saying "Go!" and she pushed a little girl out of the way so the rest of them could finish. It was all very graceful and done on tip-toe. At the end of the performance the girls all blew kisses to the audience.

The rest of the show was pretty much the same. Adorable girls galloping into a dead stop when someone else didn't move. Another girl ran off stage to kiss her mom and was brought back only to spend the whole song tying her ballet slippers.

I can tell you this: Even when my kids are grown, I will never turn down an invitation to a preschool dance recital. It's too good too pass up.