out of the house with the kids...

Well, as I was writing the previous post, the cleaning crew arrived, bright and too early. Ouch. It was still pretty messy in here. There were four cleaning girls here, and they started right in on the ceilings and the ceiling light fixtures...Joseph and I decided to hightail it. We packed up Charlotte Claire and Camille, and Evelyn, who skipped today, and went to McDonalds, again. The kids hadn't eaten yet, and it was hard to do anything in the kitchen, so they had a half a burger, some fries, and icewater for breakfast. Yikes, no parenting awards for me! They played on the playground for a while, then we went to the Dollar Tree. This Dollar tree has a cooler/freezer, so we got some good food, some sunflower seeds, some socks (ours are still all at the cleaners), two toy cell phones for two spoiled little girls.....We had a movie to take back to Blockbuster, and we picked out a few kids' movies. Caillou is always nice for the little ones. Camille likes to pick up any movie that's within reach and running. She isn't very fast on those chubby toddler legs, thankfully because neither am I....I ended up carrying her most of the time because it is easier than prying the movies out of her hands over and over again." No, Camille, we are not getting that movie" must have been her idea of mommy making a joke. Then we went to the mall. It was chilly and windy and overcast, and the ground was very wet and soggy. Not good playground weather. So to the mall it was. Those ride-ons in the middle kept their attention for a while, just don't tell them they move when you put money in them. Joseph went to the game store to browse, and we went to Aeropostale (they had 70% off the clearance, but even that was too expensive, what do people do?), and one of my favorites, the fabric store. I only bought some new fall flowers for the vases on the tables, three bunches for under five dollars. But I was in the mall without a stroller, me the stroller queen, without one in the mall...and the fabric store had carts. (Charlotte Claire is plenty old enough to walk, and the walking was good for Camille too..but Camille reaches and grabs and touches.....) We then went into Sears, because they had carts, and because I remembered walking by some decent clearance signs when I was with Paul....I got some things for the little girls for $1.99 and $2.99, and then a fleece jacket for Joseph. We successfully spent the day out of the house. The girls were wrapping it up when we got home...and they'll be back at 9 in the morning.

I shooed the kids out the door to play on the swingset just now. They came in from school, had their snacks, and turned on the t.v . I said, NO, it is so nice out today. The sun is shining on the mud. There are pears all over the front yard, the boys take bites and whip them at each other and try to hit them with the bat. Oh, our lovely yard.

I am not thrilled with the cleaning the service has done. We just painted these walls, and now there are sponge marks from they washing then. Streaks and sponge marks. And the handprints from the firemen are still there. hm.

Well, of all things, I have to go give Rosie a bath. She just plain needs one.