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Crazy Month and Crazier Day

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It’s no secret that we finish school in early May to take advantage of (usually) pretty weather and to give us time for adventures before the summer crowd hits.  Well, this May has been almost a complete failure.  Either the weather has been horrible, or we’ve been down with one of many sicknesses that swept through our house.  While there have been a few really great days, mostly it was a rough month.

Today, finally seeing the end of sickness, we could not wait to expend some energy and see friends at gymnastics.  I also promised the kids a trip to Sweet Frogs, since we never got to have an end of school year ice cream trip.  After a lovely gymnastics class, (and even better- adult time with great friends during the kids’ class) we went to Sweet Frog.

Sweet Frog is pretty packed, being a hot summer day the week after public school ended, and our family is drawing stares as I help five children choose yogurt flavors and toppings.  Suddenly Emily turns around to face the majority of the patrons, coughs once and throws up in the middle of the floor.  She’s really not sick, I promise!  She’s having some breathing issues, which sometimes choke her so that she throws up.  Very embarrassing!  I know I look like such a negligent mother, staying at the yogurt place even though my baby is ‘sick’.  We find a small table in a tucked away corner and enjoy our yogurt.

We make it home, but a storm hits almost immediately and knocks out our power.  While the storm is quick, the power doesn’t come back on.  I am totally unprepared for a power outage.  I have one flashlight, and only a few candles, AND it is dinner time.  An hour later, having found only goldfish and cereal bars to eat for dinner, I decide we’ll drive until we find a restaurant with power and real food.

I pull into IHOP with 4 very excited children and one very tired toddler.  Before I finish ordering that toddler manages to spill a cup of water on the table.  Next, a big kid spills a drink.  We haven’t even gotten our food yet and the waiter has already brought us three stacks of napkins.  My coffee arrives, and as I add cream and sugar Emily grabs a cup of half-and-half and squeezes.  That tiny 2 teaspoons of liquid seems like a water balloon popping.  We are both covered- faces, arms, clothes, neck…AND this happens right as the waiter walks up to check on us, “Would you like more napkins, Ma’am?”  Oh, and suddenly a preschooler needs to poop.

You really can’t make this stuff up!

Our food arrives and our rough day begins to turn around.  Hungry children start eating.  They all order pancakes and have so much fun trying all the different syrup flavors IHOP offers.  Who knew, syrup flavors would be a highlight of the day?  I actually get to eat while my food is hot, no one else spills, and everyone is fed and happy.   I’m sure our poor waiter sighs with relief as we walk out that door.

I worry that we’ll arrive back at home with no power, so we also stop in a local used bookstore.  Turns out they have toys, soft chairs, and a puppet theater for kids!  Michael is proud to choose his first real chapter books to buy, the little kids play, the big kids choose new books and read in comfy chairs, we sign up for a summer reading program so the kids can earn free books- and we manage to keep Emily down to knocking only two shelves of books into the floor.

I do love when an unusually rough day turns into a really great memory…but I am very glad that everyone is now tucked into bed and the day is over!

I know I always say posts are worthless without photos, but I didn’t have the camera with me today.  I did Instagram a collage of our adventure from the IPad, if I figure out how to get it to the blog I’ll add it here.  Until then you can look for BigFamilyBlessings on Instagram and follow our feed.

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