How to not do an open house at school

Oh the pitfalls of motherhood. This is mainly going to be complaining. Sorry. Today was open house at school, and of course, Brent had a meeting, so I had to go with both kids by myself. Pizza at 6pm and then around 6h30pm, parents were invited to go visit the classrooms. I don't know why i'm so lousy at this, but i just find it impossible to keep track of both my kids at these events. There were tons of people there and if i had Gabe under control, I had no idea of where Miriam was and vice verça. On top of it, I wanted to talk to the teachers and find out how class was running, just so that I would have a better idea of what Gabe is doing and how his day is organized. Try to do that with two kids running around. Finally I talked to a teacher for a while and then went to find Gabe and Miriam. They had run off to the furthest end of the playground (of course completely out of my sight) and had no intention of trying to hear me let alone listen to me. By that time, I was just ready to go home, which is exactly the moment that Gabriel chose to run hundreds of meters away from me. When i caught up with him and started arguing with him about leaving, he just kept talking back at me. When he started crying, i was about ready to just leave him there at school and never see him again. So we made it home, i was fulminating by that time and Gabriel was very upset with me... we eventually both calmed down and had ice cream and a quite civil conversation. But still, it bothers me that i can't handle these situations. And i was thinking that i was getting better at it... : ) I think i'll change the title of this blog to "The adventures of a lame mom"...