What a weekend!

Saturday has evolved into cleaning day. Not on purpose, but simply because it's the day everyone is around. Plus the house is usually a mess after a busy week of school, church, homework and extracurricular activities. So Saturday after doing some much-needed cleaning I loaded up the kids to run some errands while Phil slept. Nothing too exciting: drive through the bank to get some cash, drop off books at the library, stop by Game Stop to swap some of our Game Boy games for some newer Nintendo DS games for Rose and David, and drop off videos at Blockbuster. So after an hour of the kids being good I decided to stop by McDonalds to get everyone a snack and let them play. I was sitting reading a book keeping one eye on the kids and enjoying being able to read a bit when I noticed Rachel's outfit. She was wearing a white t-shirt and what I originally thought were black leggings. Upon closer inspection, it turned out they were just tights. So not only was she out in public with NO PANTS but she was wearing her tights inside out. And they had a hole right in the back that showed off her underwear quite nicely. She didn't understand why I was so embarrassed and why I insisted we leave right away. Good grief!

Later that day we were talking and I happened to mention that we had 7 or 8 Frischs coupons that would expire in a couple days. Rose asked whether we could go to Frischs sometime over the weekend. I said maybe and changed the subject, hoping perhaps she'd forget about it. Not likely!! Around 6:30 Sunday evening, after a busy day of relaxing and taking a nap, she asked if we were still going. Hmmm. . . What a choice. Eat out with my oldest daughter and not deal with Matthew or stay home with a grumpy husband and clingy children and try to cook something everyone would eat. So off we went to find shoes and head out. Well good news must travel fast in our house because pretty soon the only person not going was Matthew and that was only because he was asleep and Phil who had already eaten and needed to stay with Matt. Well as luck would have it, Matthew woke up just as we were leaving. He was upset and wanted to go along. So in a moment of sheer insanity, I decided to take him along and told Phil he had to go with us to help with crowd control.

Now you have to understand that we have only taken all 4 of our children out to a restaurant without a play area maybe once or twice in their lives. Normally that's something we emphatically avoid, like our cousin Lori avoids broccoli. My kids have lots of energy and are not the quietest and most well-behaved kids (unlike their Ford cousins who are extremely well-behaved in public). So the idea of taking all 4 out together even to get 4 free kids meals was a bit scary.

Amazingly though it was a success!! Apparently our reputation preceded us, because they sat us in the back corner near the kitchen. This worked in our favor though because the noise the kids made was drowned out by the noise from the kitchen. The kids all sat in their seats, stayed relatively quiet and didn't destroy anything. YAHOO!!! This was the 1st time the 6 of us had eaten out at a regular restaurant and all went home happy! I got to eat my food (including the yummy broccoli I put on my salad!), didn't have to share much of it and didn't get frustrated with the kids. YIPPEE!! What a milestone!

I just have to tell you that while I was writing this I was interrupted by Rose and Katie (one of the kids I babysit-age 9) saying that Matthew was outside naked. Upon investigation, I discovered that sure enough he was running down the sidewalk with Emma (Katie's sister, age 3, and Matthew's partner in crime) wearing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! After I stopped laughing I called him home and told him he needed to at least be wearing a diaper. So as he's running home, a school bus rounds the corner. I watch embarrassed as it slows down to stare at him before driving on. *sigh* What's that about?? I do remember David being outside naked at around the same age though. So is it a boy thing or is it just because he's 3?