another day shopping with the kids

I owed a few of my girls $5 each for some extra extra help. So today, since all the older ones, and Paul, were gone, I took them out and about. Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, Camille, and I. We headed to the ToysRUs first, since I had some coupons that expired today, and I have yet to grow up, so it is my favorite store. I realize though, that it is hard for Mr. Jonathan. He just sees all the possibilities, and goes beserk. Not asking for anything, no he knows that is wrong. He just fusses if he wants to go all the way back to look at something again. Or show me what he wants for Christmas. At one point, he told me he wasn't going to stop crying until I went back to the truck aisle....so I told him that was okay, but cry just a bit louder. I took the fun out of it for him, I guess, because he stopped pretty quickly after that.

Then we went to Target for some more 3-subject notebooks, and some cat food...and other necessities....and our favorite, the Slushie and Popcorn Special, as Sonja calls it. Try taking that many kids for slushies and popcorn at the Target concession, and you will have some fun. I guarantee you will be tempted to ask a stranger for help. I mean, I saw all these people with TWO HANDS, and they weren't even using them!!!! Margaret filled up all 7 slushies, while I carted the 7 popcorns over to the cart that unfortunately Miss Charlotte Claire somehow managed to escape from, with the help of one of her unsuspecting sisters. I was carrying Camille, and trying to keep Miss Charlotte Claire from climbing into a highchair, since we weren't planning on staying very long. I bought a new lawn chair, so 2 carts, kids with slushies, my new chair, we managed to make it to the van, leaving behind a trail of popcorn.

We sat in the van for a while, eating and talking....then Suzanne announced that the toy I had let her buy with her birthday money wasn't working anymore. It was one of those things with all thejnail like sticks, where you put your hand or face in it, and it leaves the impression....anyway, we had to go return it. Then, the dreaded grocery store. See, when you live 35 minutes or so from the good stores, you have to take advantage when you drive that far. The kids weren't too surprised, they would actually have been shocked if I didn't drag them in there. After a bathrooom stop and ordering 2 pizzas for dinner, we did our shopping. A few of the girls didn't spend their $5 yet, so when one of them spotted the giant stuffed animals on a top shelp, for $6.25, all heck broke out. You can't pull out just one....and suddenly, every child with me wanted one so badly.....eh-hmmmm, no way! 3 of the kids who actually had money got to get one. Yes, we who want to get rid of some of this junk around here, bought 3 huge stuffed animals. But on the plus side, they are so soft and cute.

We came home and had our pizza, which I was so thankful for, as the kids were tired and wild and happy and silly, and Camille had to sit on my lap, trying her darndest to grab everything. She suceeded one time, my plate went flying, and my pizza went upside down on the floor. Evelyn picked it up, I ate it.

All the older kids are home now, from their youth weekend, so I am going to go and talk to them now....