Playdate Gone Bad....

Yesterday was weird.

Backstory --
There is a little guy Simon is buddies with from preschool. I love the kid, I do. He's very sweet and he and Simon get along fantastically. They like the same things -- Legos, Skylanders, Star Wars, swordfights. They enjoy playing said things together and they never, ever fight (well, except for pretend fighting with swords)

Oh, and potty humor... they both appreciate a good dose of it. This is mostly David's influence, as we are NOT a potty humor family.... but, much to my chagrin,  when David and his potty talk came into our lives, Simon realized the funny he had been missing out on. I cringe when they sing the "butt song" or the "poop and pee song" they made up and then have a talk with Simon when we are away from David about how we don't talk like that.  He seems to get that it's only something he gets to do when he's around David so... for now, I take the good with the bad and hope they never end up at the same elementary school. Thankfully, David's affinity for SpongeBob hasn't rubbed off on Simon at all because I simply can not allow that awful character/show in my home.  I have to draw the line somewhere!

Anyway, their friendship amuses me because at first glance they seem like an unlikely duo. Simon is this solid, blonde, curly-haired five-year-old, going on eight in many ways, both because he is tall and because of his older brother's influence.  David is nearly Jonathan's size with shockingly orange hair, the tiniest, cutest thing you ever did see because he was a preemie,  and he won't be five until fall.

Nevertheless, the two of them are peas in a pod.  I liken it to Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwartzenager in the movie Twins.

ALL schoolyear long they have wanted to have a playdate at one of their houses and they have taken swimming lessons together for going on 24 weeks now.  We had gone to playgrounds and whatnot... but the house playdate, that's the bigtime.

FINALLY, I caved.  It was supposed to be nice, so I invited David, his mom and big sister over to play on the water slide... also I figured the more the merrier; so invited my niece and nephew, sister-in-law, good friend Beth and her two boys.

Then the weather started looking iffy and I had a panic attack about nine kids from 1-8 running rampant all over the house. I wasn't as worried about anyone else's kids... but something about having friends over flips the "lose your mind" switch on my own kids and they do things they would never think of doing... like throw things at the ceiling fan to see how far they will travel. Or fill up squirt toys and soak the bathroom. Or have the mother of all lightsaber battles that ultimately ends with someone getting injured. Oh and the dumping... what is it about having lots of kids over that causes them to seek out and dump toys, not to play with them, mind you... but just for the sheer thrill of dumping?

Yeah. So I nixed the giant playdate and instead just told David's mom I'd bring him home from swimming to play with Simon for a few hours and then bring him home.

Of COURSE it didn't rain. Figures. But that's beside the point now...

Ben and David's older sister, who is seven, ended up getting a last-minute swim session spot prior to the little boys', so I had to take everyone to lessons, which meant no extra car seat for David.

This meant David's mom had to drop David off at our house for the playdate instead of us bringing him home.

This meant David's sister came in and didn't want to leave.

Annnnd this is abou where things started to go awry.

First off, Ben totally highjacked the playdate. David, being four and having only a big sister who is nasty to him, thought Ben was the coolest and only wanted to play what Ben wanted to play. David's sister, who apparently at seven is already boy crazy, thought Ben was "So cute!!! He's SOooooo cute, mom!!!" so she played with them too.

Simon was left playing alone in his room. Very sad.

Also, see aforementioned tidbit about the "lose your mind" switch and my kids during playdates. Ben, who is generally my most well-behaved child, was caught throwing things at Simon's ceiling fan, jumping on furniture, throwing things from his bookshelf (?!?!) and initiating a sword fight that ended up making Simon cry not once, but three times.

Simon also attacked David's sister with a sword because she played with his castle.

After this, David's sister asked to watch Sponge Bob.

I pretended the tv didn't work.

Also? The Terminix guy showed up while they were there and told me we probably have termites in the garage.

The other kids' mom is sweet as she can be and we actually had a nice conversation. However,  after an hour and a half of the insanity, and the crying, I really just needed them to leave. Thankfully, she said she had some errands to run and I said I actually had to hit the grocery store anyway so they were gone by the two-hour mark.

Simon was really disappointed David hadn't wanted to play Legos. Ben, on the other hand, thought the playdate was AWESOME.

Hrm... that was not how that was supposed to go.

Oh and where was Jonathan during all this? NOT napping. And where there are big kids, Jonathan needs to be RIGHT in the middle... which, of course, he couldn't because they were downstairs and outside and up and down and in and out. So, there was that.

Next time, for sure, I need to have a friend over for Ben or ship Ben out to a friend's house, probably the latter. I almost emailed one of his school friends. Should have listened to my gut instinct on that.

So that was our yesterday. I hope today is a little less exciting!!!