Sharks and HOT LAVA!

Weekend nights are a free-for-all around here. The kids count down until Friday night because that means they get to sleep together in Peyton's bed. It's kind of a big deal.

So cute, right?

Ella loves sleeping in her big brother's bed so much that sometimes during the week when we go in to check on her we find her bed like this:

And then we go in Peyton's room to find this:

Anyway, back to the weekends. This last Friday James decided to fancy things up a bit. So he took both mattresses and put them on the floor in Peyton's room so the kids could have our lazy version of a camp out. The next night the kids moved both mattresses into the hallway and slept there. And the next day they moved the mattresses into the living room.

You know what I call that? I call that Mommy Free Time.

Because this last week has looked like this outside:

and then this:

and this:

While it is all very beautiful, it is also EXTREMELY cold. So I pretty much will let my kids do anything inside that keeps the screaming at each other to a minimum. That is my main goal. It sounds so much easier than it actually is.

So they moved their mattresses into the living room. And they played on those mattresses for hours.

And I think all of us had some version of this when we were kids:

The beds were islands. Of course. And can you guess what the carpet was? I know you can.

Water and sharks and crocodiles and alligators and sometimes HOT LAVA!

Is it an innate childhood ability? To turn the floor into something magically filled with fun scariness?

And then flirt with that scariness by piling your most precious possessions in the safety zone:

And then torture your most precious possessions with the danger of falling into the shark-infested HOT LAVA:

And you know that Tempur-Pedic bed ad where the guy jumps on the bed and the wine glass on the other side doesn't spill? Ella doesn't have that kind of bed.

Sucks to be you, baby dolls.