Scarlett's 4th Birthday

Our kids aren't in grade school yet and our summer travel is already dictated by their school schedule. Scarlett's preschool and Elliot's daycare has a shut-down every summer for a week. So this year, two other mommy friends of mine who also use the same daycare suggested that we rent a beach house in Santa Cruz for four days. We also talked about having a joint birthday party because our three 3-year-olds were born within 3 weeks of each other. And with having 9 families in our mommy group, it seems that every summer is just booked with birthday parties. By the time it's our kids' turn to have their birthday parties, everyone in the mommy group has grown tired of the parties. So we thought that having a joint party would be a great idea. Since we were going to be in Santa Cruz the first week of August, we might as well have their joint birthday party there too. The whole trip sounded much better than it actually was. We did have a good time but it sure wasn't relaxing or restful. And it definitely wasn't a true vacation.


Out stay at the beach house was punctuated with chaos, lots of screaming, crying, and of course, like any trip, lack of sleep. One family has a 3-year-old boy who's a week older than Scarlett and a 11-month old boy who is 3 weeks younger than Elliot. Their two boys were born on the same day (not the same year). The other family has a 3-year-old boy who is about 3 weeks older than Scarlett. They also have twin girls who turn two a few days before Scarlett's birthday. As you can imagine, the noise volume is quite high everyday until bedtime. For us, it was tiring because Elliot didn't sleep well during the night and was hard to put down for naps during the daytime. Scarlett hardly napped and was bouncing off the ceiling the whole time. My husband and I slept horribly and was on the go until the kids went to bed, which was pretty close to our bedtime. Still, we had many great memories that we will always remember. Scarlett had her first slumber party: she slept in the same room with the other two 3-year-old boys. They were put to bed around 9pm generally and we would eaves-drop on them afterwards. If we didn't shut them up, they probably would have talked for hours. It was hilarious the things they talked about. Surprisingly, they talked a lot about their siblings, in a defensive way. Here's one of the conversations:
"Let's talk about our babies!"
"Yeah!"
"Scarlett, your little brother pushed my brother today."
"Scarlett, your little brother fell down, broke his leg, and had to go to the hospital." (made up, of course)
Scarlett: "Caleb, you can call my little brother Elliot. His name is Elliot."

We also put Elliot in a separate room from us. But that didn't work out quite as well. He was in the same room as the twin girls (all in their own pack n' plays). Luckily, the girls slept pretty well throughout the night. Elliot on the other hand, woke up many times (crying of course) throughout the night.

Here's our typical day: I'm usually the first person up in the morning with Elliot around 5:30-6am. The other baby Elliot's age wakes up soon after. Then around 7am, the 3-year-olds are up and running around the house. Trying to feed 7 kids breakfast in the morning is pretty chaotic. By 9am, the kids are either going stir-crazy or driving their parents crazy so the family with the twins usually heads to the beach. But by that time, it's naptime for Elliot and the other baby. So I stay at the house with Elliot until he is done with his morning nap. Then we try and join up w/ the rest of the group. After lunch, everyone heads back to the house for naptime for the 3-year-olds. One 3-year-old won't nap so he gets quiet time. Scarlett has to be forced to take a nap. The other 3-year-old is driven around in his parent's car until he falls asleep. After Scarlett has gone down, it's Elliot's turn to nap. This is usually a 45-minute affair to try and get him to fall asleep. After nap-time, we take a walk and it's time to get dinner ready for the kids. After feeding the kids, we put a movie on for the 3-year-olds while the younger ones get put down to bed and a couple of parents make dinner for the adults. After dinner, we put the 3-year-olds to bed, clean up, chat a little, and it's bedtime. Phew! Not quite a vacation, is it? The place had a hot tub in the backyard but I think the 3-year-olds enjoyed it the most. At least the change of scenery is nice. For us, Scarlett was the one who had the best time.