Stay-at-Home Mom with Little Kids Again

No school last week on Friday meant that the kids were all mine all day, just like the old days.

Also, on a related note, HOW DID WE ALL SURVIVE THE OLD DAYS?

I mean seriously.  And now they can all go to the bathroom and buckle themselves in the car and get themselves a snack and articulate their needs in  a reasonable way, and it was still hard.  HOW in the WORLD did I take care of them 24/7 when they were babies??

We started our day with an early bird showing of The Addams Family because I am too cheap to pay $12/ticket to see a movie during the afternoon, even though afternoon is precisely when everyone is a cranky jerk and a movie would be most helpful.

 We gave it a solid meh.

 The movie ended in perfect time for us to use the gift cards Ben's parents sent the kids for Halloween and go to our favorite fast food joint, Culvers (home of the butter burger).

 Everyone's very favorite outing came next: A TRIP TO THE GROCERY STORE!  J/K.  No one likes to go to the grocery store, but!  They did want me to buy buttermilk so I could make breakfast for dinner and this store just opened, so we were all interested in checking it out.  (But!  There is a sweet little local store in this this town as the previous only grocery option, and this giant store coming in is basically the plot of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and I felt like a jerk shopping there and also expected to see the owner of the other store gazing raptly at the lobster tanks.)

 When he was stashing groceries in the trunk, Jack grabbed this random Halloween mask and scared the hell out of me when I checked my bling spot.

 Next up: THE LIBRARY!

 After that, the day devolved into general bickering and me calling Ben to ask him to come home early and save me from the children, just like the old days.  In retrospect, we should have come home for like an hour before lunch and stretched the whole day out a little more.  But to be honest, I was thrilled that Harry wanted to hang out with us all day, although part of the problem when we got home was that he wanted to go to his friend's house but Cooper needed a chaperone for a park playdate at the other end of the neighborhood, and chaos ensued.

On Saturday, Dorothy heard we were going to a Badger hockey game and dressed in her fanciest dress and then helped herself to craft supplies, asking me to please draw a pumpkin on a poster board so she could cut it out and decorate it.  Okay, then.

 She kept herself so busy for so long that I briefly fantasized about what my life would look like if I had a houseful of Dorothies.

 Clearly, it would be terrifying.

 Jack and I went to Starbucks on our way to get groceries,

 And I took 10 minutes to read this book, which I could not put down all weekend.  READ IT!

 My sunglasses got stuck in my hair at the store-- always a good look for me.

 We spent a delightful afternoon watching the National Champion Badger women's hockey team beat Bemidji State.

 The little kids mad signs!

 Dorothy tried to entice Bucky with her stuffed Bucky, but no luck.

 Pretty sure we were watching Bucky here:

 Midway through the third period, I smelled something awful and looked over to see Cooper sitting like this:

 I also experienced a bit of an Insta-scare this weekend when I was stuck on 666 followers for part of the day.  IT'S OKAY NOW.

 Ben and I ditched the kids to see Zombieland 2, which we liked a lot

 On Sunday, I had a flash of brilliance and realized that I should always be packing lunches when the kitchen is already trashed from some other meal prep and/or breakfast.  I MEAN DUH.

 Jack made taco prep a snap

 Beatrix and I saw snow if the forecast and decided we should get the leaves off the deck real fast.

 Fall paradise while we waited for Harry's hockey game to start on Sunday afternoon.

 In fact, we were so enamored with the fall vibe that we got right to work on pumpkins after dinner while we watched Hocus Pocus.

 Buddy the Elf, though, is already looking ahead to the next holiday season.