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Normally, when I talk about “mama drama”, I’m talking about Scarlett—the love name I’ve given to my southern belle mama, Patricia. But once you’ve met her, you immediately realize that “Scarlett” is really who she is. I’m afraid the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree if this week is any indication! 

This was the first full week of summer vacation at the Irvin household. To put it mildly, it was like a raging cyclone of action. For starters, my foreign exchange student (Eldest Little) decided to move to her own apartment. Doing this was like packing up for summer camp on steroids. We were setting up a full-blown household of items. Plus, the Littles got started at different summer camps—all at different locations. Just typing this all out makes me want to rev up my Keurig.

Here’s how Day 1 went: 

8:00: Drop off Middle Little at soccer camp 

8:30: Drop off Biggest Little at math camp 

9:00: Drop off Littlest Little at acting camp

10:30: Pick up Biggest Little from math camp 

12:00: Pick up Middle Little from soccer camp 

1:00: Drop off Biggest Little at soccer camp 

3:00: Pick up Littlest Little from acting camp 

4:00: Pick up Biggest Little from soccer camp

Did you happen to notice the definite lack of downtime in this schedule? Me too! In addition to packing LOTS of water and snacks for the car ride, I brought along a tablet to help entertain the Littles while we all took turns waiting (not so patiently) for each other throughout the day.  

One of my favorite things about a tablet: a good portable device is a chameleon. What I mean is that it can change from person to person and interest to interest. It’s a completely customizable gadget. 

I recently had the opportunity to test drive the Kindle Fire HD 7” tablet. WOWZER! This is a major upgrade to the original Kindle that I’ve been carrying around for about 5 years. And the first week of summer seemed like the perfect opportunity to put the Kindle through its paces! 

First of all, the battery really stood up to our day. The Kindle boasts a whopping 11-hour battery life. Plus, it weighs less than a pound, making it easy to throw in my bag, or more realistically, into the armrest of the van. With running around and managing kids, camps, and schedules, I absolutely didn't have time to babysit or monitor the kids on the Kindle. Enter sneaky parenting: I set up the parental controls before we left for the day.  One point for mom and NO arguing…a bonus! I also downloaded a few books from the library and some games from the app store before leaving in case we weren't in a WiFi area and needed extra entertainment. With over 23 million movies, apps, games, and songs, the hardest part was making up my mind. I even joined in on the tablet perks and checked my email and calendar (color coded no less) to stay on track. 

Once we got home, the Kindle Fire kept ticking. I used it to download a recipe, the Biggest Little used it to work on her textbook, and the Middle Little and Littlest Little argued about whose turn it was to play Angry Birds! You didn’t think I'd get through the day without someone throwing a hissy fit did you?!? Sigh. The Littlest and Middle Little got to sit in timeout for a bit, but not to worry, I got to download the latest e-book from Julia Quinn and a new Sudoku app. After all, the cyclone starts again tomorrow…

—Albany