Playing Hooky

We had a pretty quiet Shabbos. On Friday night, we went to Paul and Nikki Simons' for dinner (yes, his name is Paul Simon but he isn't friends with Garfunkel). Eli was his usual crazy self and Simon had fun playing with Ariella and Ilana. He and Ilana (she is almost 5) were playing house and had the following conversation:
Ilana (holding a little tiny doll): this is our baby. I just had it.
Simon: Ok, I need to go to work.
Ilana (sounding a little bit annoyed): Ok, you go to work.
Simon: I have to get money.
Ilana: Yeah, you get money.
Simon had a major temper tantrum just as we were leaving because he didn't want to put on his jacket. I fought and fought with him and made him put it on and then we got outside and it was still so warm out and then he yelled at me! I deserved it.
In the morning, we all slept late until around 9 and then David and Simon went to shul leaving me with a screaming Eli who really wanted to go with them. He went to the door sobbing "Abba, Abba, Dada, Dada." He's not sure yet what he calls David. I picked him up and he pointed to the kitchen and said "baba." I told him he can only have a baba if he is going to bed and then he pointed to his room. So even though he had been up for only an hour or so, he went back to bed. He stayed there for about 45 minutes which was nice because it gave me enough time to clean up the huge mess that David and the boys had managed to make with their breakfast.
Abby, Jonny and Jake came for lunch and stayed for most of the afternoon. Then David took the kids to the park and I took a short nap until Shabbos was over.
This morning we had to get up bright and early to go to Chashmonaim for Karen and Judah's baby's bris. Of course we got a later start than planned and hit traffic, but we got there just in time for the snipping. Simon was thrilled to see Shalem there and the two of them had a great time as usual. They don't see each other very often, but whenever they do they get along so well. They are very similar in terms of what they like to play with and how they play so it's very nice.
After the bris, we headed home so that David could go to work. Mic had to go to Bar-Ilan so Ayla and the boys came over. We took them all to the mall to get lunch and to go to the gymboree. It took forever to get to the food court because Simon and Shalem stopped at literally every single ride-on toy in the mall and there are lots of them! We got them pizza and noodles at Sbarro and then we finally made it to the gymboree where all 4 kids had a fantastic time.