While the Man's Away...

Chris went to the lake with a buddy of his this weekend. You know what that means!?!?!

PAR-TAY!

Actually, I was really excited just to spend some mom/kid/alone time this weekend. Much to Chris’ annoyance, I couldn’t wait to get him out of the house. By Saturday evening, I had cleaned the house, went grocery shopping and bought myself and the girls new summer dresses. When I got back from the store, Chris was walking around in circles trying to figure out what to pack. His friend was already there waiting on him. I quickly and easily located the items he needed, shoved them in his bag and tried to swoosh him out of the house with my broom. Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite like that, but you get my point. Once the cat was officially away, we mice migrated towards our dinner destination. Earlier that afternoon, Alex went to see the Disney/Pixar movie “Up” with our neighbor and his kids. They would be heading to the mall afterwards and would eat dinner out. What that translated into was a GNO! Grace, Eva and I in our pretty new dresses, pony-tails and headbands went to our favorite little Mexican place. We enjoyed girl-talk and crab-stuffed shrimp….TO DIE FOR!

After we stuffed ourselves silly on the Mexican goodness, we picked up HSM 3. Once arriving home, the boy joined in our party. We still have the finale of American Idol on our TiVo (only because I can’t bring myself to delete it….I mean, it’s Adam Lambert with KISS!). That show became the start of the dance party. Now, I am not an accomplished dancer and I rarely show off my lack of skills unless I’ve had more to drink than I should have. But, to let loose and just plain make a fool of myself with my kids was more fun then anyone should have. EVER.

After dancing off the calories we consumed at dinner, we put in the movie. Alex was so exhausted he didn’t even care to watch the movie. He marched upstairs to his room proclaiming he was GOING TO BED. I tucked in my little man and went to watch the movie with the girls. By the end of the first scene, both little mamas were out. I found myself watching a pre-teen movie alone on a Saturday night. After realizing that I am almost 30 and should not be so entertained by this type of movie…and after realizing what a sad, pathetic 30 year old I might be for watching it alone on a Saturday night, I switched to SNL even though I had just watched the same one a few weeks ago. Still love me some JT.

Eventually, I carried the girls upstairs to their rooms and called it a night. Big plans laid in the horizon for Sunday.

In the early morning hours, I cooked a feast for the kids and we headed to Church. From there we met up with my sister-in-law, Michelle, for a fun-filled day of chaos at the zoo. Previously, I went to the grocery store and bought all the necessities for a picnic lunch at Forest Park. After driving around Forest Park for over an hour, we found a place for me to unsuccessfully parallel park the mini-van. Three attempts later, I was still 2-feet from the curb but DID. NOT. CARE! We found a nice grassy area near the lake and the boat house. We busted out our lunch, some juice for the kids and some wine for Michelle and I. Yes, four kids = MUST HAVE WINE! The kids fed their sandwich bread to the ducks while Michelle and I made bets on which kid would fall into the lake first. Fortunately, none did….although it was close at times. When we were all out of bread, Eva decided that Cheetos would do just fine. And guess what I learned? Turtles LOVE Cheetos. We counted 6 turtles emerging to the surface to snatch and snack. It must be the “real” cheese.

We then cleaned up our picnic, dump the basket in the van, still said screw the parking job and hiked up the never-ending hill to the zoo. Oh, the Zoo!

To Be Continued…..