Having Three Kids Is Finally Paying Off

Yesterday we had Georgia's birthday party, which I will tell you more about next post.  Let's just say it was a very Spidey birthday.  Even though she won't officially turn 5 until the end of this month,  we are going to be gone on a Disney Cruise then.  We decided to have her big 5 year old birthday party before we left.  Oh you didn't know we were going on a Disney Cruise?  Yes we are and we all can't wait! Well the girls and I can't.  Andy goes back and forth between being happy for vacation and having anxiety that the huge ship we will be sailing on will meet some kind of untimely demise.  To which I say-who cares!  At least I won't be cooking and cleaning beforehand.  Not only are we going on an amazing seven day cruise, but we are not paying for it.  My parents celebrate their 40th anniversary later this month and they have been saving for this cruise since before any of us had kids.  This is their gift to themselves and to us.  Yes, they ARE super awesome and you should be very jealous.  I will tell you all about it when we get back, but I digress.  This post wasn't supposed to be about making you jealous.  Well maybe it was, because what I will tell you is just as awesome.

Anyway-birthday party-right.  So we have to clean  the house before the party, of course.  I am Type A must have everything perfect for guests kind of person.  For years I did everything myself for these parties, with the help of my husband, while we propped the girls in the living room to stay out of the way with a DVD or some other form of television babysitting.  NO MORE!  They are ALL old enough now to help out.  Sonya has been helping more the past couple years, but now along with the other two they can do more.  So yesterday morning I made a list for them which included:

Clean the bathrooms
vacuum the living room
make your beds
switch over the laundry

HOLY CRAP!  I am my mother!  I remember my parents leaving us these lists on Saturday mornings while they went out to run errands.  We were older than my girls are now, when they would leave us, but I remember always having these lists and here I am passing them on to my kids.  I HATED it.  I used to complain that my parents only had us so they had someone to do their chores.  I didn't realize , of course, that we were the ones creating more mess to be cleaned up.  I get that now (Sorry mom)  and dammit, there is no reason for me to be doing everything when I have three Cinderellas helpful children running around.  So they did their list, and guess what? They didn't even hate it, and I didn't get any complaining.  Of course the idea of pizza and cake at the party probably fueled them but you  know, whatever works.   Don't worry I'm sure the complaints will come in time.  But wow was it great this time!  I got more done so much faster.  I wasn't as stressed and down to the wire as I usually am before a party.  I was able to delegate work that got done and even got done well.  Who knew!

vacuuming the living room

while Georgia did the kitchen

Lana insisted she do so vacuuming too...  OK!!

So yes, not only can you be jealous of me that I get to go on a free awesome vacation, but you can be jealous that I now have three free housekeepers living with me.  Don't worry though, I'm sure next time getting them to help won't go as well, and I will have to resort to bribing them with ponies again.  Good thing we will be able to afford it though since we aren't paying for this cruise.  (Thank you to my parents who are super fantastically awesome!  I can NOT wait until next week!!)