I started to write an entry yesterday, but I erased it because it sounded like I was just complaining a lot. It was early in the day - before all of the kids were up - and the doorbell was already ringing because of the younger neighbor girl. I guess I should have started out the day with some caffeine!

Anyway, today has been an okay day. During the morning, Accalia was at the second day of her two-day cooking/fitness class. On Monday, she and six other kids had made pizza and fruit kabobs and spent time in the gymnastics room of the activity center. Today they learned about bike safety and went on a bike ride. Accalia said she had a lot of fun both days. So today, while Accalia was at the class, Ella, Cole and I ran a couple errands and just hung out at home. On Monday we went to a couple different places around Yankton to climb around, but today I don't think any of us were feeling that energetic.

This afternoon, the neighbor girls were inside the house from after lunch until Accalia went to tap in the later afternoon. I'm not sure if the girls have a computer at their house or are able to play on it often if they do, but that seems to be what they mostly wanted to do today. Accalia and Cole had fun with that for a while but then wanted to go outside to play. The past few days have been rather interesting with the neighbors and especially Cole. The younger girl, 5, has started trying to take charge of playing (when her older sister, 7, hasn't been there) and has been telling mostly Cole (once Accalia) that they couldn't play with the other two. That resulted in a lot of hurt feelings on Cole's part. I did tell the neighbor girl that she couldn't exclude one person from playing because 1) there were only three of them, and 2) she was at our house playing with the excluded child's toys. I thought under those circumstances it made sense to tell her no one could be excluded, but at the same time I also know that it's not fair to force them to play with someone. But when they're at that person's house playing with that person's things? Yeah, I felt okay saying that. What have others of you done? This is really the first time we've every been in a play situation where one of the kids doesn't want to include everyone.

So Accalia had tap, then we had an early supper and Cory went off to deliver pizzas. Ella fell asleep early tonight, so we'll see if she wakes up later or wakes up early in the morning. Cole and Accalia are playing outside with the neighbor girls again and all seems to be going well.

The street in front of our house is all torn up, so the kids have been having a lot of fun watching the construction today while the workers installed new water pipes. I have a feeling the novelty will wear off before the street is finished. I'm not sure how many blocks of our street will be torn up, but the letter we received from the City stated that the roads would probably be open by mid to late October. Ugh. I don't know if our street will be earlier, though, since we're one of the first blocks to be torn up.

Tomorrow will be storytime, but that's about it. I need to clean the two bathrooms. I also need to catch up on LLL work. Maybe I'll work on that tonight while I have the chance.

We have what looks to be a pretty fun weekend coming up. My parents are on a little vacation through South Dakota right now and are coming to Yankton on Friday. They'll spend the night at a motel so the kids can make use of the pool there. Cory was able to get that night off, so that will be extra nice. We probably won't see my parents again before the baby arrives. On Sunday, we're having supper over at a friend's house (she also happens to be my doula). That should be fun since our kids rarely play together.

I should sign off and try to do a few things now. Accalia and Cole are back inside and happily playing a computer game that disappeared a few months ago but mysteriously reappeared tonight.