A day off from school

Today the kids had the day off from school. Teacher comp day or something like that. I decided to take them to go see Coraline, since I had won some passes which were only good at Jordan Commons. Unfortunately, Cole didn’t have his homework done, so he didn’t get to go with us. So the four kids and I went to the movies this afternoon, and it was fun.

My take on Coraline? Well, it was a little freaky, and kind of creepy scary for a kid’s movie. And why, oh, why, would they take the Lord’s name in vain in a children’s movie? Not just once, but two or three times! That’s not appropriate or necessary in a kid’s movie at all. It just irritates me, and makes me never want to take my kids out to movie!

When we came out of the movie theater, we were in for a surprise. Snow. What? Oh, well, it’s still March, so snow is allowed every once in a while. We ran to the car (we were sadly underdressed for snow) and cranked the heat. On our way home, I saw the lovely Ikea and asked the kids if they wanted to go to IKEA with me. “Yes!” they all shouted. So, we pulled into Ikea, and John and Jenna were practically jumping up and down with excitement. The kids’s play place is magical, and they hadn’t been there in a long long time. There was going to be about a 20 minute wait, so we went up the wonderful escalator to the kids’ section. The youngest two had fun playing on the teeter totter and little swing, and playing in the tents. Megan and Natalie entertained themselves by sorting the stuffed animals. Yes, you did read that right. They made sure the stuffed animals were in the correct bins. If there was a stray labrador in the beaver box, they would take it out and find where it went. No, it doesn’t sound all that fun to me, either, but they enjoyed it.

When it was time, Jenna and John got to be checked in for their hour of fun in Smalland. Oh, the joy. So I took the older girls with me. We picked out new laundry baskets, a kitchen timer and a lint roller (Yes, our shopping trips ARE exciting), and then deliberated over shelves. They did shopping cart ballet while I decided if I should get the $29.99 GORM or the $39.99 GORM. Decisions, decisions. We made a quick stop at the AS-Is, and then payed for our stuff. We still had 15 minutes left on our playland timer, so I bought the girls their hot dogs and they sat down to eat.

When we looked outside, we were in for a shock. The snow, which we thought had finished and passed up by, was coming down HARD. There was in inch of snow on the cars, and I realized we now had to haul our stuff out to the car. Ick! After the girls ate their snack, we pulled Jenna and John out of the play place and got them a snack. I found someone’s wallet on the floor, with money practically hanging out of it. Although I would have liked to look inside and see who left their wallet on the floor, I didn’t even look, and turned it into the guy at the food counter. Let him call the guy. While the little kids finished up their snack, I left Megan in charge and went and got the car. Ugh. Snow was coming down fast, and the car was wet and covered in snow. I could barely see out the side windows, but I managed to pull into the loading spot. Those GORMS take up a lot of room, and I was glad we were able to put down the back seat and still manage to fit everyone in.

The drive home was NOT pleasant. It was very poor visability, especially when we got off the freeway and onto the road that goes to Alpine/Highland. I could see the car in front of me, but only his brake lights. It was Nasty with a capital N. 1/2 an hour later, and we were safely in our neighborhood.

We were home about two minutes when Megan got a phone call and asked if I could take her to the church for a basketball practice. “Are you serious? We just got home.” I whined just a little bit. But I took her, and was pleased that the snow had let up a bit. Spring snow is like that.

So, it was a busy day. It was a fun day. It was a day off from school. It was a snowy day.