I am so, so tired right now. I started off last night (or actually this morning) with a sleep deficit by not getting to bed until after 1 a.m. Ella, too. I stayed up to wait for Cory to get home from work and to talk with him for a while, and Ella's earlier-in-the-evening sleeping was interrupted by the storms and she was still hanging on at that point. We had both slept for about 2 1/2 hours when Ella woke up crying and wouldn't stop. I got up with her and went downstairs and she started holding her ear. So we were downstairs for about an hour while she nursed and I held a warm rice pack to her ear and massaged along the back of it. We went back upstairs and slept fitfully for about an hour before Ella woke up crying and we headed back downstairs again. We ended up sleeping in the recliner for a couple more hours before I got up for the day and Ella slept a little longer on the couch. Ella's been asleep since a little after 6 p.m., so hopefully she catches up on a little sleep tonight.

The neighbor girls have been playing here all day. They were already up and outside riding their bikes in front of our house by the time Accalia and Cole woke up around 9 a.m. We took a break from the playing when we went out for lunch and then to the carnival (all three kids had a blast). Then we had another hour break when the kids and I went to the store to pick up a few gardening supplies. Accalia and Cole are really getting tired but just can't stop playing quite yet.

I forgot to mention something I put together for the kids yesterday that they really seem to like. I had read an article a few months ago in Wondertime about going on archeological digs with children. The article also had ideas for making your own dig kit, and I knew Accalia and Cole would love something like that. I ordered kid size fanny packs on Amazon to put everything in, but I'm not sure if I'd order the same packs again. The pockets are really small. If you want to put a regular sized paintbrush or knife in them, they would be too long for the pockets. It worked out fine for us, though, because we already had mini brushes and knives from other things. Ella doesn't actually have an interest in using the pack as a dig kit, but she wore her pack for the longest time.

I really need to do some dishes before all motivation slips away. Tomorrow we'll go grocery shopping, but there's not much more that we need to do tomorrow.