Its a marathon, not a sprint....

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I run a marathon, as in an after school marathon. The kids get out of school at 3:20 p.m. and Lauren has to be to dance by 4:00 p.m. and Mark has karate at 4:00 p.m. The challenge is that these two activities are 15 miles apart, and I have not quite figured out how to clone myself.

Around 3:00 p.m. I begin loading the car....I swear its like packing for vacation.

Here are the necessary items...my purse, bag with Mark's karate clothing, purple backpack with ALL of Lauren's dance clothing. (She does four different type of dance, so depending on the day of the week, clothing rotates in and out...) Two iPads, one for Katie, one for Mark. (Failure to bring the iPads results in Mark and Katie deciding that annoying each other during drive time is an acceptable activity. What do I mean by annoying? It usually involves Mark complaining that Katie is looking out his window, touching him, looking at him, or Katie screaming at the top of her lungs that Mark is violating some perceived right of hers.) And finally snacks are a MUST!

Upon picking up Lauren and Mark, both are required to change their clothes in the car. Lauren gets dropped off first which usually makes her about 20 minutes early for class. She is a good sport about this. Then its on to karate. Depending on the day of the week Lauren finishes dance anywhere from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Finally home, everything that was loaded must be unloaded. That is why I run a marathon, not a sprint.....