I'm Drumming

We've officially hit the, "I'm drumming!" stage, which really means picking up any long object that can remotely be used as a drumstick and smashing it anywhere and everywhere- including while we're eating in restaurants.  Actually, especially in restaurants.

Usually, our restaurant experiences are filled with totally chaotic moments of little ones crying and spilling and generally being messy; but now that the boys are the "drumming" stage, our restaurant outings having taken on a whole new adjective: noisy.  So, in the interest of sharing some helpful tips, we recently discovered something that works pretty well.  Instead of every utensil being used as drum sticks- and with 4 of us, there's 12 opportunities for that, we've smartened up and started asking for extra straws.  And wha-lah, we have ourselves 2 sets of quiet drum sticks that keep them occupied for the majority of the meal.

Here's how it went this weekend:

They always start out so well mannered, but 10 minutes in, we're on the brink of serious meltdowns.