Chateau Envy

I had the kind of day today that left me full of the joy and excitement of the kids. I was worried it was going to be really stressful, but somehow the day cleared up and we all had time to enjoy ourselves. Ariel got rained out of work. Piano Lessons got cancelled. None of the kids had any cavities at the dentist. We got to start the day with whole wheat banana pancakes and end it with our soccer orientation meeting. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to find a local soccer club where all four of the kids can play at the same time in the same place. On our way to the orientation meeting, Isaac, Shkuri, and I had a nice little chat about the presidential election. They both decided they wanted Barack Obama to win (with no prompting from me, really!)

It is the sort of day where I start to envy Angelina Jolie. Not for Brad Pitt or the paparazzi, but the whole being able to afford a jet set life style while having a whole passle of kids. At least part of the time, I would really like to have/adopt a few more kids. (There are also days when I wonder why I have kids at all) Having a big family is awesome. Our house, however, will not fit any more humans in it. I also don't know if we could afford piano lessons and soccer for many more kids. I definitely know we couldn't afford to go on vacations to France or Vietnam or Mexico if we had any more kids - which are all things that I would like to do as a family. Mostly though, I love having a big group of kids, I just kind of wish I could do it in a ten bedroom chateau in the French Riveria.