Frozen in Time

This may very well be the longest Friday night we have had at our house in all time. It is not even nine p.m. yet, and I was ready for bed about 2 hours ago. The kids and I went to an early movie tonight, after some play dates fell through and everybody was feeling grumpy and out of sorts. Then we got something to eat, looked at videos and magazines for a while, bought some ice cream, and came home to find out it was only 7 pm. Now, seemingly four hours later, it is 8:46. Audrey has been hounding me all night to help her make a poster for school on yellow-bellied marmots, and as soon as I sat down to help her, she got on the phone with her chum Alaina, where she still is, using up all of our cell phone minutes on inane banter. Will has been in a funk all night. Duncan was mad that I made him go to the movie with us, telling me that it has been the worst night of his life. Olivia has been drawing and cutting out pictures of baby spiders, then losing them all over the house. She keeps whining at me to help her find them. Now she is telling me that she has dropped her pen down the heat register, and I really have to get Audrey off that phone. Bedtime can't come soon enough tonight.