It Started Out Like Any Normal Saturday

You know, the kind of Saturday that you start out thinking "Let's do something fun and different so the kids can experience something new" and then bravely pack them up and get in to the car for a short adventure. Our short adventure turned into a most-of-the-day voyage that left me convinced that I would never be leaving the house with the children ever again.

First stop?

Clue #1: Elise in a stroller wearing Jack's coat because her mother didn't plan ahead

Clue #2: Fresh veggies, blue tarped tents and strange* blurry men in the background


Clue #3: The $2 bag of kettle corn that Jack spotted immediately upon arrival and didn't stop talking about until we had secured a bag and it was safely in his grip

That's right...none other than the Burnsville Heart of the City farmer's market. We picked up sweet corn, green beans and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Oh, and some kettle corn.

*I only mean strange in the sense that we didn't (and still don't) know said man. He may be very nice and not odd at all. It's just that, well, we don't know him.

Next stop?

Clue #1: Does anyone recognize this bright red ball?

You guessed it...Super Target! The farmer's market didn't have tomatoes, lettuce or the smattering of other things on my list so we had to hit Super Target to pick up the final few items I needed to host a barbecue on Sunday afternoon. This trip was amazingly fast and contained very few of the following statements:

"Don't touch that" "Hands to yourself...that means don't touch" "Stop running" "Follow Mommy" "Come back here" "No, you may not eat candy from that giant bin of candy calling your name" "Jack, you're not a worker" "Please hang that back up"

It was a rather nice trip in which both boys earned their cookies and no one had a tantrum.

Now I bet you're thinking, "They should be heading home now. It must be about lunch time and surely they need to get their perishable food items (tomatoes, milk, cheese) into a much colder environment than the car." Not a chance.

Our next stop was a two and a half hour impromptu stop in which:

Clue #1: We ate lunch consisting of Wheat Thins, sliced turkey, swiss cheese (not for Wesley of course), apples and, yes, kettle corn

Clue #2: Elise was content just hanging out with Mommy

Clue #3: Elise got tired and crabby because we stayed well into nap time and sleeping in the stroller that doesn't lie flat just isn't good enough

Clue #4: The boys' activities were restricted to sitting in chairs reading the only two books that we happened to have in the car

Clue #5: It started out great - Jack was happily reading about how great Grandpa is

Clue #6: Wesley was happily reading about a new vehicle for our favorite female arachnid

Clue #7: It started to go downhill when Wesley decided eating the book was more fun than looking at the pictures

I knew I'd lost control when:

Clue #8: My beautiful bouquet of flowers sat on a countertop out of water for way too long**

Clue #9: The milk we had purchased ended up in the "pop" fridge alongside the Dr Pepper and Pepsi

Clue #10: The boys might as well have licked that garbage can inside and out for as many times as they touched it and then put their hands directly into their mouths

Clue #11: Jack got ahold of the camera

Clue #12: They found the candy machine

Clue #13: I thought this was worth photographing

Any guesses yet?

This is where I spent two and a half hours alone (as in no other adults that were responsible for my children were present) with my three young children...during lunch time...and nap time

On our way to Super Target I noticed that the car was squeaking. I called Sean. He called the auto shop. Lucky me, they could get us in right away. We finished our shopping at Super Target and promptly headed to the auto shop where I waited 30 minutes for them to look at the car and then park it right in front of the door for another 20 minutes before the man behind the desk talked to me about it and found out that I, indeed, wanted to go ahead and get the brakes fixed (the squeaking culprit). Then we waited another hour for the right parts to be delivered before they took the next 30 minutes to replace the rear break pads. At least the car doesn't squeak now.

**In an attempt to salvage the flowers I tried pouring some water into the plastic bag that the flower vendor wrapped around the wet stems. Well, the bag had two holes in it. I didn't realize this until I moved the bag slightly and water started pouring out of the bag onto my lap and the floor. So now I had a wet lap, a wet floor, no napkins and a bag full (but not quite as full as before) of water. Styrofoam cup? Why not? Oh, but the water didn't go into the cup. It went all over the counter. Still, I have no napkins. I gave up and just laid my flowers in the water just hoping they'd survive.

Sorry about the spacing on this post. I can't fix it.