We survived "NO TV WEEK..."

....with a few modifications.

First, let me say that I was really and truly honestly surprised at how well the kids all did. I had a feeling there would be a lot of fighting and arguing as they tried to sort out actually having to play with each other. I was happily surprised that for the most part they were able to work it out by themselves.

Last weeks heat was brutal so all my plans of spending large amounts of time outdoors and at the park were thwarted a bit. On top of the heat Johnson County was under an air quality advisory which made it hard for my little asthmatic to even enjoy being outside.

MONDAY started really well. Brinton went to strings camp the first part of the morning and most of the kids slept in a bit. After breakfast the girls decided to make a "Crafts Club" and they grabbed all the paper, crayons, stickers, scissors we had and sat crafting at the dining table till lunch time! Aidan and Liam played in the bath tub with their dinosaurs for much much longer than usual (Liam kept calling it his indoor pool) and then they played in their room and we read books. It was seriously too easy. After lunch Aidan took a nap, Ashlynne went to read and Brinton stayed in his room to draw. Elise, Julianna, and Liam went outside on our back porch in the shade for a bit to blow bubbles and play with sidewalk chalk. After awhile they went down to the basement and played with toys I'm pretty sure they forgot they owned. By then it was dinner. After we went to the pool with our pool passes for the rest of the evening.

Omgosh that was long and boring without any pictures because I'm totally lame and didn't really take any. I was enjoying the day too much!

So remember I said that we survived with a few modifications? Well the whole point of this week wasn't really to test our will power, I mostly wanted the kids to have an opportunity to spend some time just creating, imagining and playing. After we came home from the pool at around 830 I decided that as a reward for the amazing day we had I'd allow the entire family to sit down together and watch one show. We decided on watching America's Got Talent a couple of the days, So You think You Can Dance one day and some movie on Nickelodeon the other day. It really was the perfect balance for us. A day full of imagination and play and a fun family show at night.

Most of the week went much the same. One day I took the kids to the thrift store and Brinton picked out Twister to play with everyone. We got it home and set it up in the basement. There were a couple fights about who got to play and who got to use the spinner and waa! Waa! Waa! So I put it away. We brought it out again the next day and they played twister for over an hour! The giggles and laughter coming from downstairs were priceless.

We went to the pool almost every night except Wednesday we went during the day (yuck too hot!) I kid you not the pool passes were our best purchase all summer!!

To sum it all up I was really happy with how the whole week turned out.

I was talking to a friend at church and she mentioned that her parents used to do the same thing when they were younger BUT the only TV that wasn't off limits was church videos. I like that idea a lot and will probably incorporate it somehow if we do it again.

Sorry to bore you with this long ramble of a post. Did you want a picture??

My kids are kind of nutty....