Being prepared!

In our preparations for our big trip to go here...

I wanted to make sure that I could prepare for the week so our sitter had to do as little as possible! Because, lets face it my "job" would be a lot easier if all I really had to do was make sure the kids were safe and play with them! I am strongly considering doing all these things at the start of my week to make my week go more smoothly too. Not saying her job wasn't hard or exhausting, but I wanted to help out as much as I could!

A few weeks before I thought about all the things that I could do before hand. Besides the normal make sure the laundry was done and the house was spic and span. So I went into organizing mode. The mode I love most! I have things pretty organized around here, but I walked through the house as if I was in it for the first time and saw a bunch of things that would be really helpful if they were labeled. As if I needed any more labels around here! So the labeler came out and excitement was running through my blood!

I have containers on the shelf above my washer and dryer with cleaning rags, cleaning supplies, washing supplies, and dog supplies. They were already labeled, and it was nice for her to know right where to go to get what she needed. I also have a kitchen closet where I keep most everything. On the top shelf I have little containers with batteries, household items, bows, hair product, and adhesives. The second shelf I have diapers and wet wipes, kids craft items, and kids art supplies. That is helpful to, to know right where to go to get what you need!

I even went as far as labeling things in our armoire where we keep sheets, towels, kids sheets and pillowcases. I went through our toys in the crazy toy room and put most all the toys away in a closet and just kept out about 10 things. SO much easier to clean up even if they drag all the toys off the shelfs!

Here are the things I did for her that I want to start doing for myself!

The twins take a snack to school everyday, so I placed 8 bags with fresh veggies or fruits with a juice and their names on the bags, in the fridge. I made Bennett's lunch just for the next day, but prepped most everything so he could just grab a sandwich, a fruit, a veggie, something crunchy and grab his juice box out of the freezer, which helps keep everything else cold till he eats lunch!

I got out 8 outfits for each child and placed them on the dining room table. I dad 1 -7 for each day with them ordered in birth order. I had their Sunday shoes out on the table too. I actually did one extra day just incase they needed them.

I left an envelope with case, their ss cards and an insurance card along with our Sam's card that has credit on it for anything they may need and or gasoline. I also found someone to run the kids to preschool each day and pick them up along with bringing them home. I had arranged with my mom to take B to scouts too as well as making a grocery run at the end of the week to get some fruit, bread and milk.

Another fun thing we did was make a little prize bag, one for each day we were gone. As I was thinking of all the things we could do, I thought about how fun it would be if I did one for the sweet girl staying with our sweet kids. It was almost more fun for me too! For the kids we did just one thing a day the new kids bop cd so they could do a dance party, bubbles and a new book, McDonald's gift cards, crafty things to do, big bop em balloons, A ream of paper to make us a welcome home banner and some treats that we normally do not have around the house. Apparently they really loved them. Cortland was more than gracious when we called home to tell us how much he really appreciated. So super sweet. For Nicki I just did little things, like a bag of those circus peanuts and mentioned something about good luck hanging out with our circus, a pedicure, sticky note that were shaped like a star, because after all, to us, she is a rock star now, a midnight Milky Way hoping she wasn't up that late every night, a candle, and some other things, but you get the idea. I think they thought it was fun. It is just little things like that, that when we are not here, our children know we are still thinking about them, that really seem to make a difference!

I really hope this all made things slightly more easy. My kids are pretty good, they are sweet sweet kids, but lets face it, I've got the numbers. Four little ones five and under can be and get crazy! I got very good reports when we got home from the wonderful and amazing Nicki! Even my mom said she was just so great at it, took everything in stride and honestly looked like she was enjoying herself. I even got a text from her saying we should plan a trip again so she could watch them and how much she missed them. A big plus as well is we came home with no laundry and a very spotless house, which we told her not to do any laundry and don't worry about the house! She is a keeper. I wish I could hire her!!! or adopt her! We are so grateful to her for everything. If it weren't for her we could not have gone, and who wants to miss out on a free trip to Mexico?