Rundown on this week

This week, starting with Monday.
We wanted to bring our niece with us to Elitch Gardens, our local amusement park. Problem is she lives about 25 minutes away not near the park. So my SIL drove her over in the afternoon and she spent the night. We were going to go on Tues to the water park and the rides. But being the mom of 4 that I am I knew that wouldn't work. So I spent the morning packing stuff, getting ready, making sure kids got naps, moving car seats to accomodate another person, finding passes, etc.
When dh got home we loaded up the van and drove off.

It was pretty fun. I spent the first hour with the two little ones. We went on the carousel and then headed off to kiddie land. Then we all met up and I went on a ride with E. That kid is great and so brave. A and my niece waited in line for a thrill ride for over 20 minutes only to find out that A was 2 inches too short. I took E and S on the tilt o whirl. That ride is intense, especially for a 2 year old. Go S for being so brave.

We ate at the lovely food court. DH got a Subway sandwich for me while I nursed the baby. For some unknown reason when Subway workers are asked to go light on the mustard they seem to hear it as, "Please drench my sandwich in so much mustard that it is rendered inedible" which is precisely what happened, again. I ended up eating some of dh's Panda Express.

Then my niece, A and I did a crazy thing. We went on the Tower of Doom. This is the ride that malfunctioned somewhere else and ripped some poor girls feet off. Yup, I said it was crazy. Niece and I got in line because A was too scared to. I thought niece really wanted to go so I went with her. After about 7 minutes in line she turned to me and asked if I really wanted to go. I didn't. We hopped out of line and then heard A crying. She had finally worked up the nerve to go and had navigated her way thru the confusing switchbacks that was the line and when she finally got to us we bailed. We then got back in line and waited. It was so fun and scary and thrilling at the same time. The others ended the evening on the Ferris wheel, where the operator forgot about them and they were on it forever.

Tuesday:
Dear niece and I bravely headed back to the park with all four kids and all the accompanying junk. We got there and found a spot on the ground, all the chairs being taken already. We were sunscreening everyone when we realized S was gone. She had wandered off and was in the water already. Scary. After the sunscreening of everyone else I headed off to get changed and rent a locker. As soon as I returned dear niece took the older girls to go on a water slide. I sunscreened myself as best as I could. I would find out later that I missed my entire back and it hurt for two days. Anyhow, I tried to keep S occupied splashing in the shallows while holding baby L. It wasn't easy. Then L wanted to eat so I tried to coax an unwilling toddler back to a hot towel to wait. S kept running back to the water so I had to try to cover myself, hold the baby and haul her. Then a nice lady sitting nearby offered to take her in the water. I could still see them from where I was sitting so I agreed. S went with her for about 5 minutes, then decided to come sit with me, eat popcorn and backwash in my water.

When the girls got back dear niece and A decided to go on a slide that flushes you like a toilet. I know, gross analogy. E then had to stay with me, S and L. We ate cheetos, spilled popcorn, E played on the pirate ship, S chased her, L hung out with me on a rock. It was blisteringly fun. Dear niece and A returned and we decided to go on the lazy river thing. Niece took S who we persuaded to wear a life jacket for additional safety. L was out of luck. ( I had brought 2 jackets but S wanted to wear the infant one which is technically hers but whatever.) I have been on the river several times with L and S and never been under the cascadey falls but of course this time got stuck under with a newborn. Nice. Just when I got her calmed down we got stuck under the next one. A was floating behind me and E kept grabbing my tube which further complicated things.

After the river we decided to eat lunch. In the water park area there is only pizza available. Since the rules state that proper attire is to be worn in the rest of the park and I had no desire to change everyone just to get grub, we ate pizza. We ordered 2 individual pizzas, one order of breadsticks, 2 soft pretzels and got a refill of our park cup. Imagine me and a 17 year old hauling an infant, a 2 year old still in life jacket, a 5 year old and an 8 year old and all that food past several rows of deck chairs and a pirate ship spraying water. Fun. We had E hold the cup filled with marinara with explicit directions not to spill it. We returned to our stuff and our one chair( nice lady who took S swimming got it for us) E proceeded to sit on it and spill entire cup of sauce on chair, her towel and nieces towel. spilled marinara in 95+ degree heat. Oh and we forgot napkins. We finished eating, totally draining the drink in about 2 minutes. The we looked at the clock and realized we were supposed to leave 5 minutes before. We then packed everything back up. E was very sad because she wanted to go on another slide with niece but we really didn't have time as traffic starts getting bad and we needed to get niece back to her house. Niece took S (without life jacket this time) and stood in line for a refill while I changed and turned in our locker key, taking the other 3 girls. By the time I was done Niece was still in line. I had A get in line about 5 people behind her. We got the first refill and downed it by the time A was at the window. We got another refill and enjoyed it much more slowly.

We finally left the park got everyone buckled and delivered niece home and returned to ours with no further complications.


Wed.
Wed I realized my kids clothes were a mess, needed some work. SOrted clothes, handed some down, tossed icky ones, boxed up some to be worn later. Decided in my wisdom to take the kids to Walmart to look for clothes, snacks for trip and maybe school supplies. Two hours and $70 something later we came home with E's first pair of non-handme down capris, a new polo for her, goldfish crackers, capri sun, 2 new school backpacks for the 1 day a week they will attend school, some school supplies including a pencil box for a three year old (its just easier, trust me) diapers and I have no idea what else. Then we headed to the library to pick up more Rome books and some books on cd for the car trip. E then decided to yell in the car aout how she hates books on cd.

Thursday
Thursday I spent the morning doing laundry and trying to clean which is a joke because my house is always trashed. Then in the afternoon I took the kids tothe audiologist for L's hearing aid fitting and another fun round of Let's Test S to determine what hearing loss if any she has. Oh the joys. Then after all of the fun that goes with an audio appt. We came home and I had to rush to make something to take to my Homeschool Moms' Potluck. I churned out a pizza and calzone for the home crowd, plus nutritious Kool Aid. Then 2 calzones to bring, loaded up the book and baby, rushed out the door. Picked up friend, drove to host's house only getting misdirected once. Stayed there until almost eleven discussing The Five Thousand Year Leap and all sorts of things.

Friday
Packed up the two older girl's clothes, more laundry, ate more leftovers in attempt to clean out fridge in practical way. Took girls with me to get the oil changed. Spent more quality time together in wating room. The went to Best Buy to get the ipod cable for our car radio. Best Buy finally decided it was out of stock and sent us to Car Toys. hauled kids to Car Toys and had to convince employees that my radio is ipod compatible. After having to haul kids outside to prove to employee we went back inside while they looked for the part. Then after paying too high of an installation fee because I didn't want to go back to Best Buy we waited in the little waiting nook. This nook has S's new favorite thing. Its name is water cooler. She got water all over the place. Finally finished, we headed home for lunch and naps. While s and L were napping I folded clothes, watched osme tv and then cleaned out the car. When dh got home from work we plugged in his ipod to find it behaving erratically. Loaded up the kids and followed dh to his buddy's work. Buddy was supposed to be there to fix our van before our trip. Work was supposed to be done like 4 weeks before but life got in the way. Anyhow, no one was there. We waited for about 20 minutes then drove home. Buddy called dh. He had come by our house to follow dh so I didn't have to go. Mixed up signals, forgotten cell phones, dh ended up going back with him.

Finally around 5 we were able to pick up the babysitter for our fun night of shopping. We went to Chili's first which was quite nice. Then headed to Target to buy the rest of the store, it seemed like. Since our ipod was dead we bought a new one. It is really nice. Dh bought a polo, khakis, some T shirts and sunglasses. After we got home and put the kids to bed and did some more laundry (see a theme here??) dh tired his stuff on. Apparently we had grabbed the clothes frome the Young men's section. And the sunglasses were broken. Dh headed to Target 20 minutes before closing and managed to get another shirt and a belt. Did more laundry and headed to bed.

Not going into Saturday right now, but that was my hectic week.