We Earned It

We've all been working hard lately with cleaning and organizing (and keeping up with what we've done) and with having good attitudes (not too much whining from the kids).  So today we rewarded ourselves.  We sent the kids to their room to do some cleaning (and playing) while Jeremy and I set up a surprise.  When we were ready, we called them and told them to bring their blankets and pillows to set down in the living room.  We told them that because we'd all been doing such a great job lately, we were all going to watch "The Quiet Man."  It's a movie with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  It was funny to see their reactions.  They didn't know how to be enthusiastic about watching that movie (great movie for Jeremy and me but maybe a little boring for the kids). 
We then sent them into the kitchen where they had snacks waiting for them to take back out to the living room.  They each got a bag of popcorn, a box of swedish fish, and a bottle of pink lemonade.  They were quite happy about that.

When we got settled in the living room, we pushed play on the DVD player.  The kids were excited to find out that the movie we were actually watching was "Planes."  They thought at first it was a preview on "The Quiet Man" but we let them know we had fooled them and we were watching the actual movie, not just a preview.  They took it well and enjoyed the movie and snacks.

We earned it.