post dinner madness

In my opinion, the problem with giving the children dinner is that they go completely loopy after they've eaten it. No matter what it is they eat or drink they have a big explosion of energy and giddy excitedness.
When I was a child this time was also well acknowledged. After dinner, before bed was 'Ruffle-AND-Tumble' time. My two little brothers had a special ruffle-and-tumble called 'the Bull charge', where one boy would stand with his legs apart, the other would get on all fours and charge between them as fast as he could ending up with his brother on his back. (I think everyone should try this sometime, grab your husband after dinner and give it a go, go on, do it!)

So here I want to celebrate our crazy after dinner time.
It usually starts with 'can I get naked?' At the moment the answer is pretty much always 'no' because it's too cold. So Rebe (being Rebe) came up with a compromise where they can be naked but with a nightie on... Often Rebe is either Benny's dog or horse and they gallop around the kitchen....very loudly.

A recent game is running laps around the table. Of course they have to be in character! Rebe was a greyhound here called Flash and Benny a superhero called Splash. You can just see the blur that is Benny behind the star blanket. As they go past me I have to call out the number of laps they have run (not too challenging while having my coffee). Yesterday they got up to 64. I kid you not, they ran around the table as fast as they could 64 times!

Sometimes I try and clam things down with a story....this doesn't always work though.

Joa is starting to get into the action having a good kick and a giggle at his crazy big brother and sister. I can see the 'wow you guys are so cool' look in his eyes; this does not bode well! (By the way, I don't think there is anything much cuter than a wee boy in red tights). This picture was from before dinner, but I just wanted to show you how sweet Benny is. This is a doll I'm working on for the etsy shop. When Benny sees them, no matter how unfinished they are, he is always says 'aw sweet' and tucks them under his arm and wanders off to look after them. He tucked this little one up in a duplo bed and made it dinner (a jigsaw). That boy is going to be a good daddy one day :-)

What is your post dinner time like?