After the tea party the boys went for a bike ride and the girls did pedicures. Very fun.
And we will be leaving the cute little blue hydrangea plant planted in the yard somewhere as our mark on our stay. That and the broken light post... and pencil marked table... and two broken mugs... and marker'd sheets.... shhhh....
The rest of this mother's week has also been filled with excitement.
On Monday Anneke announced that when "I grow up, because," (she added in parentheses) "you only grow UP, not DOWN. When I grow up, I am going to have a penis. Because. I really love them."
All righty then.
Emma was rolling on the floor. Sam began the explanations. These conversations ended in a song sung by Sam regarding sizes of various family members body parts that I wont fully disclose. I excused myself to another room....
On Wednesday I took the kids on our main weekly grocery trip. This has been a habit hard to break for me. I am used to a big trip once every 7-10 days with a mid week produce fill up. The grocery carts here aren't even made big enough for our weekly stockpile! The check out counters do not have bagging areas so you need to slide your groceries back into the cart immediately and bag at your car... and most people there are not buying the amount of food we are so we really clog things up. But, I find we spend so much more money going to the store once every few days.... getting that extra few things that just look good every trip.. Anyway.... I packed up the kids to do our trip- two stores.. But about halfway through the first store I started really having to go to the bathroom. I hoped the urge would dissipate. It did not. I looked for a restroom. No luck. I knew it was getting urgent. I cut the trip short. Checked out. Started throwing groceries into the hatch. And looking for a bush. It was getting that bad. My head was beginning to explode. I wanted to make it to the larger store I knew had restrooms. Wasn't going to happen. Ive been known to pull over in my driveway on my way home from a trip to town because I couldn't make it the short rest of the distance to the house... Sigh. I succumbed to the inevitable. A crouch and pee next to the wheel of the car in. the. grocery. store. parking. lot. Needless to say, we went home. Landon was dully impressed and the next day launched into a big description of it to a little boy he was playing with at the park... the little boy didn't speak a word of English though, so that was good. And I am sure Landon will have forgotten in 6 weeks. Actually, no, he will not, so I am just telling you now.... :)
On Friday we made a fun plan to meet JB at school for lunch in his cafeteria. He had a half day at school and we wanted to check out a local second hand store and poke around town a tiny bit before heading to the Wildpark all together. I decided to brave a new route. I had been avoiding this route because it involves FOUR roundabouts. I would park in a mall parking lot that has a pay lot with bars to get in and out. I am not used to these ticket and pass systems and frankly, they make me a little nervous. But it was close to our destination and free parking, when you are validated in the grocery store. I made my plan. Carefully got us there. Entered the lot. Parked. We did our shopping, ate lunch, timed it all correctly to make a purchase at the grocery store within the timeframe (almost didn't make it due to a train crossing) and loaded the kids up- said goodbye to JB to meet him at home- and drove up to the gate. Inserted the ticket. Waited for receipt. (I think that was what I was waiting for) and then heard Emma- "Mom, you waited too long. The gate closed." Great. We were now in the parking lot with no ticket. Gate closed. Cars behind us. I motioned for them to back up. We backed up and parked again. Hmmm. What to do? Get new ticket I guess. I walked over to the entrance and pushed the button. No ticket. I remembered JB telling me you have to have a car register the sensor to get a ticket at some of these places. I wasn't going to be able to get a new ticket. I was truly stuck. In a parking lot. With my four kids. I texted JB. "Stuck in parking lot." He replied, "How?" Me, "Gate closed before I drove out." Him, "BHWAHHHAA" I was still thinking about whether to fully spell out the words of my reply or just use standard text abbreviations when he texted, "I'm on my way." I didn't know if the grocery store was going to be of help or what? There had to be a back up system here! JB arrived and tried to get a ticket on his bike. No luck. So, he did what any reasonable person would do, and zipped the car out on the tail of another car going through.... Right. Because the gate is open for such an amazingly long time... Good grief.
So, no more grocery store parking lots for me. And that's the honest truth... :)
PS- I told my next door neighbor with all the kids my story when she came over to collect her two boys who were playing here. She got a good laugh out of my story but did tell me that when they first built this system she didn't shop there for a long time because she didn't want to deal with it, and the first time she did she got stuck there too. They were having problems with the machine and it wouldn't take her ticket. Apparently there is a phone button you can push for help and discuss your situation with someone. I cant imagine that would have gone very well either, although they probably would have opened the gate just to get me out of there....
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