Tough Love...

On Wed. night we told the kids if they go to bed good and stay in bed that we would take them to Trafalga (mini golf, bumper boats, rock climbing, race car driving, roller coaster ride, arcade, and more)-a place made for kids.... (I know its very sad that we are bribing our kids- but it sometimes take a good hour to get them to fall asleep)so they actually went to bed good...until 12:30am...Ashlyn woke up, came down stairs and wanted to sleep in my bed. Somewhere after I went to bed and Ashlyn coming down stairs Parker tip toed into our room and weaseled himself into my bed without me knowing it! So Mike told both kids to go back to bed. Parker was awesome and went without a problem...Ashlyn on the other hand cried. and cried and then screamed. the crying and screaming got louder and louder. After about and hour and 1/2 we brought Parker downstairs and told him to lay on the couch and if he were to get off the couch 1 time he would not go to trafalga. Mike locked Ashlyns door to keep her from coming downstairs and into our room, thinking she will get tired enough from crying and go back to her bed. Wrong! Thats when the start of louder screaming, louder crying, and kicking the door started. Mike told me to try to ignore it- after 30 more minutes of this-Mike went upstairs and got her to stop and we finally were able to fall back asleep around 2:30am. YES Im talking a 2 hour tantrum that went on!
So that morning (thursday) we woke up, tired of course, and told the kids they were not going to Trafalga. We ended up going....only because Hayden slept the whole night with out a peep. So Parker and Ashlyn stood and watched the whole time we were there. Although Hayden was way too young to fully enjoy the activities that take place there, we had to do it to show the other 2 kids what they were missing out on. Surprisingly they didnt complain at all or throw a fit about not being able to do anything. When it came time for bed last night we once again told the kids...go to bed good, stay in bed until the sun comes up and we go to Trafalga tomorrow.
The next day (this morning) we woke up to an empty bed (no kids) and we actually had a good night sleep! And they did NOT get out of bed at all when we put them down last night. Maybe this "tough love" will actually work (for now)!
*** hayden went on the bumper boats, the roller coaster ride, and the swing thingy. he did have fun! But i know the older kids would love it so much more than hayden did***