A day with the kids

It was one of those days.

The really good kind. The kind that makes you tired to the bones and feel that you might want to drop yourself off at the Labor and Delivery ward on the way home. I'm positive I could forge a doctor's note confining me to bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. I'm working out the details in my mind right now.

We were given Thursday and Friday off for Parent/Teacher conferences. The conferences were inevitably a mere afterthought by the time we finished our "what should we do?" planning session over breakfast. The suggestions:

A bike ride (We live 2 blocks away from the Indian Creek Trail system which is GOR. GEOUS.) Unfortunately, after our 6 mile ride last Saturday, I almost went into labor. So....we'll leave that one for Dad to carry out.

Chuck e Cheese. I have been unsuccessful in convincing them that Chucky only lives in Arkansas. Those kids have the eyes of an eagle when it comes to locating gaming establishments for the underage set. Blast you, Chuck.

Go to Wal-Mart. Really? REALLY? After all the precious hours of our lives we have spent there in a vain attempt to be entertained in our dear, sweet, Arkansas? REALLY?

Get a library card. Now this is something I think I can do. Does anybody know where the library is? Please tell me it exists in my 10 square mile "safety zone".

Go to Science City. Oh, yes. I can handle this. I'm sure my GPS can get us there and we already have a membership to Union Station, so it is free. AND there are benches all over that place so I can reasonably expect to park my pregnant behind for the majority of the time. An occasional head-count and a periodic "Oh, yes! That is a big dino!" will get me through. A win-win.

Go to the park. Can we count the park that you pass by on your bike ride with Dad?

In the end we did most of the stuff they wanted to do. Thursday was consumed by running errands, attending conferences and paying my children all the allowance I owe them after forgetting for 5 weeks. I'm not ashamed to say that we bought "How to Train Your Dragon" dvd on Monday and it has been viewed alot. ALOT. Totally worth 20 bucks. Unfortunately they now all want to be various viking/dragon characters for Halloween. That will end up costing more that 20 bucks. So we'll probably just get down the Halloween boxes and see what we can dig up from the costumes of yesteryear. I'm positive that vikings and dragons were close and personal friends with horses, giraffes, ninjas and Dorothy.

This morning we hit Chuck e cheese at 9 am. The only time to go. The kids had the place to themselves and the manager is still in the process of testing all the machines. That means he leaves a trail of abandoned tickets in his wake and my kiddos think it's Christmas. Thanks to you, Mr. Manager. Every Hufford child now has one more plactic ring and rubber frog to add to the pile of treasures destined for the Salvation Army next week. It truly is better to give than to receive.

Then to the library.

Then to lunch with Mark and Chartreuse Caboose (philly steak heaven).

And on to Science City. Played with the musical trash cans, bossed other kids around at the water station, brushed the dino bones out of shredded rubber mulch, played a game of chess, and soon it was time to whip out my secret weapon....the only way to get your kids to leave without a fight...."Who wants to go pick out some candy?"

Oh, yeah....that's right. Nary a tear was shed.

We went to one of those great candy stores where you can find such treasures as Neapolitan coconut thingies....and miniature gummy bears, and Tootie Frooties. Not to mention the rootbeer barrels and the peachy penguins. My only rule is you can't pick anything we see in the checkout aisle. No skittles or m&m's. Let's go for the candy legos and gummy lobsters. It's ridiculously expensive (8 bucks a pound?) but they validate for parking so I figure it's for a good cause. And off we go!

Happy kids full of sugar watching the dragon movie for the 15th time in the car on the way home.

I'm thinking it was a great day and the only thing that would make it better is to drop myself off at Labor and Delivery on the way home.