After 23 days of Christmas vacation and snow days, Anthony finally had school again. Emily had been going some days, but I kept her home when the weather was below 30 degrees. I was afraid there would be problems trying to get the kids back in their bedroom routine. Even before Christmas break, the kids were going to bed much later than I preferred. Anthony's tried to do some wheeling and dealing but he's been listening. He's allowed to stay up in the living room until 9. And then he can read in bed until 10. I knew it would be trickier for Emily since she shares a room with Aubrey. And if one doesn't want to go to bed at night, then neither does the other. I made Emily a deal that if she went to bed good Sunday thru Thursday, then Friday she would be allowed to stay up really late. This was all the incentive she needed. She had a little trouble falling asleep Wednesday but other than that, most nights either she feel asleep shortly after her head hit the pillow or she laid quietly in bed. When I saw how well having an incentive worked the first night, I decided to make it more of an event. I bought ingredients at the store for her to make her very own pizza. Anthony's made one before but this would be a first for Emily. Then we decided that we would all watch Despicable Me 2 as a family and make it a movie party. We had a great time last night. Anthony asked to make a pizza too. So he made the grown up pizza and Emily made the kid pizza. Anthony was still adding toppings and Emily had nothing to do so she asked if she could put more toppings on. She said she wanted sprinkles on her pizza. Then I gave her some pineapple to put on top. She wanted to add a granola bar, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Emily's sprinkle pizza was not as gross as I expected. Emily didn't like it and after one bite and asked for a piece with just cheese. And Anthony wouldn't even try it. Daddy had a slice of sprinkle pizza and said it was the best pizza he ever had.
We watched the movie together. The kids were laughing so hard, even Anthony who had already seen it twice before. After the movie Anthony brought Aubrey's Minnie Mouse tent in his room and put it on his bed. Then he made a fort around it. I turned off the lights and brought the kids some books and flashlights so they could read together. Anthony said he read her Dora and the Magic Kingdom and that Emily fell asleep as soon as it was over. Then Anthony said since Emily was in the way, he didn't have room to stretch his feet and lay down so he waited until his eyes got tired enough that he could fall asleep sitting up. When I went to check on them in the middle of the night, he was sleeping half in the tent and half out and Emily was sleeping sideways at the bottom of the bed.
