outing without the camera, oops

I didn't let the HappyMeal coupons expire this year, so I feel like I accomplished something. Shh, I know the only thing I REALLY accomplished was to fill my kids with fat and salt, but still. They got cute little prizes, that I am sure they will treasure forever, and they certainly had fun filling those little cups with soda for once, instead of just water.

It was extra fun because we have Will today, my sister's grandson. He is 17 months old, and he is completely lovable. The girls fight over him, they do not get tired of him, either. So today I brought Samuel, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, Camille, and of course Will. Margaret and Kathryn are at the beach with a family from church, Paul and the older kids are at the Carrier Dome fundraising, Ben is heading to the pizza place, and Aaron was at his first day of work at McD's. We went to a playground by a river, and let Will walk and run all around in the grass, and pushed him in the baby swing, and caught him at the bottoms of the small slides. He has a cold, so I didn't want to tire him out too much, and he was pretty mellow and relaxed on the way home. I set up his little bed, Evelyn changed him and put him in it, and he went to sleep right away. What a good boy! Now the kids are watching, "Fantastic Mr. Fox", and I am relaxing in my chair.

I started this day early, too early for a Saturday, but I needed to clean up the floors and make sure there weren't any buttons or pennies or stray pencils on the floor for Mr. Will to get. I worked for a few hours, and it really did feel nice to get so much done. When my niece got here with Will, I was glad I had so much done, because he had already had his morning nap, and we could get ready and go on our outing....

And here I am.

There was a mommy at the playground with a little boy around four years old. She was the nice kind of mommy, talking to him and giving him nice underduckies on the swing. The little boy asked her some questions about my little girls, and she said to him, "I know it is your dream to have brothers and sisters, honey..."....I forget sometimes how lucky I am, and how lucky these guys are to have each other.