On Tuesday Angelica was sick (with a cold we gave her!) so I was on my own with the four kids again.

This time around I didn’t rush right home, but stayed out in the playground for over 2 hours.

I figured out how to cover the four kids on my own. Sort of. The trick is to just lower your standards.

Ben’s teacher Ms Sara said, “I don’t know how you do it.”

Well, as you are saying this to me, Aaron is eating dirt, Sam is climbing stairs with no one spotting, Ben is running around without his shoes off, and Jack is climbing on top of the garbage can.

Rare moment when the twins were NOT running in opposite directions.

But nowadays my standards are so low that none of this bothers me. As long as no one is crying, choking, or getting abused by other kids in the park, we’re good.

The Hutchinson Boys join us for a bit.

Or maybe it’s not lowering your standards. Maybe it’s just luck. If nothing goes wrong, you will be okay. The next day Angelica was back and I down to having only 2 kids in the park in the afternoon. I’m glad, because if this happened when all four were around I’m not sure I would have handled it with such good humor…

Jack after stomping in a mud puddle.