Frankie's Big Play Date

Yesterday was a first for me in the world of mom-dom. Frankie asked two of her school friends back to our house, and their moms agreed to drop the girls off for a three-hour playdate.

In theory, three hours didn't sound like that long of a time. I figured I'd feed them a snack, bake some cookies, give them some bubbles to play with, and just basically let them run loose in the house. For the most part, that's pretty much how it went. I did learn, though, that three hours is in fact a very, very long time when you're trying to entertain and referee for three strong-willed five year old girls.

In my play-date fantasy, I was hoping to lounge on the couch with a book while the girls entertained themselves. In reality, I was on my feet the whole time, breaking up arguments, consoling the criers, and running back and forth between the girls and the kitchen. The girls played upstairs, downstairs, and outside. I managed to close out the playdate with only one injury (a minor knee-scraping followed by the application of a Hello Kitty band-aid), one tantrum (not Frankie), and one emotional trauma (when asked, I explained why it's not a good idea to stand under a tall tree during a thunderstorm, and now one of the girls is now terrified of trees).

As soon as the last mom came by to pick up her daughter, I was pretty much done for the night. I probably could have fallen asleep on the kitchen floor. I think Frankie had a good time, though.

Ah, the things we do for love.