Today was birthday party day for my two year old daughter Mary. Friends had been invited, cupcakes baked and grandparents arriving, which are the best ingredients for a day of fun.
Today was going to be spent a Recreation Outlet in Powell, an indoor playground and then hot dogs for lunch over at Two Mad Dogs. Recreation outlet is actually a showroom for playground equipment including swing sets, slides, basketball hoops and trampolines. Even though it’s a retail store they allow “free play” on certain days of the week in the mornings; so I called up some of Sam and Mary’s friends (My girlfriends!) and told them to be there or be square. Arrival time was set for 9:30am and hot dogs were to be consumed at 11:15. The Recreation Outlet is approximately 20 minutes from my house so rising early in the morning to have kids (and mommy) fed, dressed and out the door on time was imperative.
That “imperative” schedule went out the window when I didn’t wake up until I heard my husband bringing my daughter into our bedroom at 8:05am. Even though I knew I needed to get up and get going I was so groggy it took me a few minutes to let it register that I was behind schedule about 30 minutes. Of course once I recognized my tardiness I flew like a flash to the shower just as if I were in the “Twas the night before Christmas” poem.
I actually had to go and wake my son, Samuel, to get him up and around since he likes to be the one to never do as his told. (i.e. eating, getting dressed, getting shoes and coat, well you get the picture.) Once out of the shower and dressed I had breakfast warming up in the microwave, no time for sizzling bacon and hot toast like I had imagined the night before. No, reality was premade waffles from the freezer and per my sons request, chicken nuggets. Hey! Whatever gets him to eat. Of course I couldn’t sit with my kids for breakfast, I had hair to dry and make up to apply so my 2 year old was left to her own devices eating a waffle covered in syrup and my son had to eat by himself without me nagging him to eat, eat, eat, eat! I didn't get breakfast because I had a bag of snacks and juice to pack and coffee to make.
Breakfast table cleanup was underway and I was actually on schedule. I knew if I prayed to the Lord he’d come through on slowing down time! After all the stickiness of syrup was wiped from mouth and hands and uneaten chicken nuggets went to the dog we were ready for clothes and shoes. Thankfully my 4 year old can pretty much dress himself and my two year old has the hang of things that dress up time went smoothly and quickly. Now all that was left was the arrival of my parents, the zipping of coats and loading into the van. Of course once all of the above had been completed and my reverse lights were on to get us on our way, my gas light turned on and of course it indicated that I only had 14 miles until empty, that was not going to get us to the other side of town. My mom graciously handed over her credit card and told me to put gas in my tank, on her. Thanks mom! OK, gas tank full, check. Kids excited about playground, check. Seatbelts buckled, check. Away we go!
We arrived at the Recreation Outlet around 9:45 and I was feeling guilty because we were 15 minutes later then I had told my friends but they were too were late, as usual. This was the one time I was thankful they were late. Once inside the kids were off and running, still with their coats on. After signing the required release form that I was not going to sue Recreation Outlet if my kids got hurt I took their coats to a little cubby and I hardly knew where they were after that. I am so happy my parents were with me because having two kids that want to do every slide, swing and trampoline in the place I didn’t have enough eyes, legs or arms to watch, chase or catch each of them. PHEW! That place, is crazy.
After an hour and half of pure unadulterated playtime the lights in the place went down like a bar at 2am indicating “free play” was over. I was waiting for the manager to come over the loud speaker and say “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here”. And we didn’t, stay there, we went to get hot dogs and have cupcakes. When we arrived at the hot dog joint the wind began to blow and soon the snow started to fall. This did not make me happy because driving anywhere with my dad is nerve racking let alone when it’s snowing.
After all the hot dogs were eaten (some only half eaten) it was cupcake time. Mary had picked herself out a pink frosted cupcake and was running her finger through the frosting as “Happy Birthday” was sung to her. Mary had decided that she wasn’t going to use her hands and pick up the cupcake, oh no, she had to face plant herself into her cupcake. (See picture below)
After we cleaned up the messy birthday girl we headed for home to open her gifts. I had a feeling Mary may fall asleep on the 20 minute car ride home after a busy morning so I had grandpa in the backseat talking and playing with her to keep her awake and his nagging over my driving to a minimum. She was on such a cupcake high grandpa had a pretty easy job.
She could hardly wait to get in the door , her coat and shoes off before tearing into her gifts! She received a cute Mini Mouse dress up set, a “Melissa and Doug” fruit and veggie cutting board set from grandma and grandpa and shopping cart with groceries from mommy and daddy. Besides an hour and half nap she hasn’t stopped going since this morning. She’s still going even now and it’s now 9:20 at night, she is refusing to go to bed since I mistakenly gave her a cupcake after dinner.
I must say today was a blast, except for the fact that daddy had to miss out because he had to go do that thing called work. That’s ok because we are going to do our own family outing after church on Sunday; it’s going to be a Dave and Busters day!
It is said in Psalm 127:3 that children are the heritage from the Lord, oh how true that is. Today was a day that the Lord had made even though my daughter still sits in her crib calling my name as I type this blog at 9:30 at night. I know that I will not here her tiny voice call my name for much longer and I will soak up every ounce of it.
Good night and God Bless
~Andrea
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