Really Busy Day

This afternoon was jam-packed. I picked up Eli and Orli and brought them to Gan Dafna to wait for Simon and Maya. There were 2 guys fixing the sidewalk outside the gan and Eli and Orli were fascinated by what they were doing and stood there completely transfixed for the 15 minutes that we had to wait. Would be nice if they would be there every day because usually they run wild and are impatient for those 15 minutes!
I don't know how people with more than 2 kids manage to keep them all within eyesight or under control at any given time. Today wasn't the first time that I've taken Eli and Orli into the gan to get Simon and Maya and then had to successfully get all 4 kids out of the gan and back to the street and deliver Orli and Maya to Debbie's car. Every time I do it, it does not seem to get easier. I'm always losing a kid or someone is dropping his/her bag or someone doesn't want to hold hands to cross the street. We eventually made it out and Debbie asked if we wanted to come over for lunch and to play while Asher napped and then go the park when he'd wake up.
Eli was thrilled at that suggestion. Simon burst into tears and said he didn't want to go and then suddenly said "FINE, I'll go." I don't know what that was about, but we went and Simon was perfectly happy to be there. He actually played with Orli a lot. By "played" I mean they totally beat each other up. She is pretty rough and I don't think he realized that she is not even 3 yet!! They all ate lunch and played and watched tv and then they all sat at the table with coloring books and colored until it was time to go to the park.
We were going to the park right near Simon's friend Ari's house, so I texted Kira to see if Ari was around and if he wanted to come to the park. Good call on my part because Simon was getting sick of playing with the girls and he and Eli were fighting constantly. Luckily Ari showed up just as things were really deteriorating. He lives about 5 houses away from the park with no streets to cross and he was so excited because he had been allowed to come to the park by himself (his sister watched him from the door until she saw him get to us).
At some point, I got a text message that Simon's basketball was cancelled for today. AFter some back and forth with David about his schedule, we decided that I would drop Simon at David's office on my way to take Eli to gym. For some reason, Simon was really not happy about that so I told him I would just bring him to gym too and hope that the teacher wouldn't care. He was excited about that, but then he and Ari decided that he should go to Ari's house instead. Kira had come to get Ari and Simon asked her if he could go to their house. She said sure (she has 7 kids so what's 1 more??) and they ran off because they were so excited that they could go by themselves. Eli was a little sad because he wanted to go too, but I reminded him that we were going to his gym class so he felt better.
We went to gym and had fun. Eli much prefers the free-play part and doesn't really participate in a lot of the group stuff. I think that is partly because it is from 5:30-6:15pm and he is generally hungry for dinner and exhuasted at that time of day. Anyway, when it was over we went to pick up Simon who promptly burst into tears and whined "but I didn't have any time to play at home today." Seriously, I can't win with that kid. He had an entire afternoon of playing with friends at their houses and in the park and he just wanted to play at home?? I swear had we stayed home he would have complained that he wanted to go to a friend's house. I reminded him that he shouldn't cry and whine because he was getting a big treat tonight.
That big treat was that he got to stay up late and come with me to the airport to pick up Marcia who was coming back after 4 months in Brazil!! We picked up Marcia's daughter Sarah and went to the airport. Sarah had just told her that she was getting a ride with a friend to pick her up because we wanted it to be a surprise. She was definitely surprised and happy to see us. Simon was thrilled to see her and would not let go of her! He proudly gave her the pictures that he and Eli had made for her. When we dropped her off, he kept yelling out the window to her and blowing kisses until we drove away.
I told her not to worry about working tomorrow since she must be exhausted but she said she will at least come over at some point because she is dying to see Eli too. I wonder how he will react to seeing her.