As I was watching/observing my family this evening as we were attempting to get them all ready for bed/school tomorrow, I notice things that are typical large family things:

• No one listens the first, second, or third time you tell them to do something. Well really the first time I give them a break because its dang loud in here.
• Second, there is no "down time" or "quiet time" before bed in our neck of the woods. Our before bedtime is somewhere between loud and obnoxious. I'd love to know what the neighbors must think.
• Books are not read right before bed, gotta get those out of the way an hour before the pre-bed rush.
• The favored bedtime ritual is running/jumping/rough housing/horsing around.
• Pajamas is a whole post unto itself. I envy those families that children wear those matchy sets of cute character jammies. I think to myself how cute my kiddos would be in those. But whoa that would be a week's grocery bill worth of jammers for my kids, and really they would get stuck down in the bottom of the dirty clothes hampers for weeks, never to be seen in the right season again. Instead they wear clothes that are stained, two sizes too big, and shirts that got torn/holes in them but can't stand to part with them.

Bonus of my large family, they are all so exhausted from playing hard all day they fall into bed and start snoring before I sit down to watch tv for the night. Just keeping it real.