How to keep youngins occupied.

Well at two thirty in the afternoon my 5 year old and his best buddy get off the bus in front of my house. The same house that my 4 year old has been sitting in front of on and off most of the day waiting for the older two so he'll have more testosterone running around wild and screaming free. The first week or two really of school went crazy, I am a mother of three and never in my five years of mothering did I ever really need to keep three pups from tearing in the trash. I know they aren't wild hounds running around trying to find the next best thing to get into, but I'm not sure they know that. I had to enforce the timeout chair which is in the kitchen, who ever is not in timeout is not allowed in the kitchen. It is working perfectly. My evil plan is foolproof!! (just kidding, but that is how a child in trouble sees you) My boys used to just play, help out a bit, and play some more, maybe if it's really hot out watch a little t.v. in the evenings and then go outside with dad and mess around in the garden. They had a great summer and now are having a hard time dealing with sharing an extra person in the evenings. My dear sweet husband said "you need to keep them on a regular activity like school does in the evenings" so I tried getting them to color, reading to them, and getting them to play soccer. It;s not going to happen when they are all hyped up from being in school all day and home all day waiting so I had to think outside the box. The box being my thirty year old female brain. I had to come up with something they like and that would hold their attention for more that 5 minutes.

1. I tell them to run up the front yard and race down. Easy enough for about 10 minutes.
2. They ride their wagon down the driveway!!! That is even fun for an adult trust me on this.
3. They ride their bid dump trucks down the yard or driveway. The only way that would work for an adult is to use 2 of them as skates. I do not recommend that idea to adults.
4. I save plastic jars that mayo or peanut butter came out of and they use them for catching bugs.
5. They use shovels for digging in the dirt and finding worms. Great for the compost!!
6. They have picnics on the porch but they call them parties because boys are to cool for picnics you big sissy.
7. They like to pick veggies out of the garden and on a rare occasion have been known to sit still long enough to snap some beans.
8. I've been saving dish washing bottles of syrup bottles and washing them and filling them with water and playing water tag. First I chase them all around the yard trying to spray them and then pass the bottle on to the next tagger.
9. With the same bottles I have them water plants or clean their trucks or bikes.
10. I give each boy 4 squares of tp and barely stick it into his waistband and they play tp tag, or flag tag and you have to grab the persons tp. the one with the most tp wins.

Well that's it for now as I come up with other ways to spend you afternoon with a house full of youngins I'll let you know and if you have any ideas to send my way I would be ever so thankful. God bless and have a great weekend.