UEA Friday A.K.A. Needy Girl with a phone..

Okay... The house is clean.  Friday begins.  What will we do?

Halloween Shopping for Carly & Rachel!

The little kids costumes are complete.  Here's the rundown.

Mason: Cowboy: we have a dollar store black cowboy hat, a dollar store sherrif badge/pistol/holster set,  black jeans from his dresser drawer and a very Western red/blue plaid Wrangler shirt complete with very cowboyish snaps with the pearly finish.

Samantha: Bocahontas: She is wearing an indian dress I made several years ago for Carly and Rachel to play dress up in.  It is just an off white color and we'll make a headband since her current haircut will not support braids very well and lucky us, The Gublers just gave us some hand-me-downs that included a pair of moccasins that are just a bit too big.  We'll stuff a little cotton in the toes and they'll be perfect.

Jacob: A Star wars clone warrior.  (Totally prepurchased costume.  I rarely go this route but Jacob has gone for very easy, inexpensive costumes the last couple years and he REALLY wanted this)

Rachel: An Asian beauty.  I found a gold Kimono for $7 at a thrift store.  It was in beautiful shape, just needed a couple snaps sewed back on.  It is slit up to the knees on both sides so she'll wear black leggings and black stockings underneath.  We went Friday morning to our trade network office where I had seen some beautiful beaded slippers I thought would look good.  There were a pair of silver slippers with a beaded butterfly design that had gold in it.  They were perfect.  A little big but nothing a little cotton in the toe won't solve.  Then we went to the mall to get some chopsticks from the food court for her hair.  Rachel begged to walk around a little while so we did.  We went into Claire's and there on the clearance rack were some beautiful silver hair clips with tiny gold accents that looked like chopsticks.  So for a few dollars I was saved the hassle of figuring out how to gussy up my free foodcourt chopsticks for her hair.  We found some white halloween makeup that we'll have to experiment with for her face.... wish me luck on that.  She's going to look beautiful! 

Carly: Velma fr0m the Scooby gang.  Her friends wanted to do a "group costume".   She has friends who intend to be Daphne, Freddy, Scooby and Shaggy.  She thought her new haircut would be perfect for Velma.  A couple weeks ago we bought a couple things for a witch costume but I told her if we could find things cheap enough I'd help her with the Velma costume.  So after Rachel and I got back it was Carly's turn to go shopping.  I really did not have high hopes we'd have success finding an Orange turtleneck and brown skirt.  (Today we found out by Googling Velma that it's a red skirt... ooops!)  We found an Orange Turtleneck that is actually pretty and she'll probably wear it later.  $6.  We found a long dark brown denim skirt that we cut off at knee length and hemmed.  $6.  We found perfect square black glasses that we popped the lenses out of $2.  I have brown loafers she'll wear but we still need to find orange Knee socks.  She looks cute.  

That took care of our morning and early afternoon.  Now it was time for some serious family fun! Mark was out of town at a boy scout conference so we got together with our friends, The Johansens, who also had a dad out of town.  They have a girl Rachel's age, Andrea.  They have a boy Jacob's age, Spencer.  We looked at the Dollar movie schedule.  The clone wars animated star wars flick and Journey to the center of the Earth were both approx. the same length and started within 10 minutes of each other.  We took a poll and Spencer and Samantha were the only clone wars enthusiasts.  I really thought Jacob would choose the Star Wars movie but he thought it looked a little weird.  Heather (mom) asked Spence if he was okay about going just with Samantha.  He said "sure! no problem."  She questioned whether Samantha could hold onto his arm and maybe lean her head on his shoulder if she was scared.  He replied "sure! That would be fine, (holds up his fist) I have a fist of Iron"  Heather had seen "Journey' already so she said she would sit with the clone kids until it started.  When she slipped into our theatre she said Samantha was a little worried so she had left her cell phone with Sam and showed her how to call my phone which was on vibrate if she had any troubles. Can you already see what's coming?

Phone call #1.  We don't answer but Heather graciously runs to next door theatre.

Problem: Samantha wants to go get a drink from the drinking fountain but thinks she is locked in.  

Solution: Heather assures her she can go get a drink whenever she wants and walks her to the drinking fountain.

Phone call #2: Heather again graciously runs to next door theatre.  

Problem: Samantha wants some more candy....

Solution: Heather reiterates that the phone is for EMERGENCIES only.... There is no more candy!

Phone call #3:  We ignore phone call #3

Phone Call #4: I feel bad so I start to get up but Heather very kindly and very graciously tells me to sit down, she will go again.

problem: When I push on my cheek right here, it hurts.  I want my mom to know.

Solution: Don't push on your cheek right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I'll tell your mom.  AND THE PHONE IS ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Samantha & Spencer loved their movie.

The rest of us loved Journey to the Center of the Earth.  It's fun and clean.  They don't take themselves too seriously.  

Now it's 7pm and it's Crazy Dinner time.  We divided up the kids and we headed to Maceys.  We met at the front of the store and listed the rules.  Every kid had $2 to spend.  They could combine their money with one other person if they chose and they could not buy any candy or dessert.  They could buy Juice but not soda.  We had just had candy at the movies and we really wanted some semblance of a dinner not gummy worms, orange soda and tootsie pops.  

Everyone was pretty good about sticking to the rules.  There was some misunderstanding on what constitutes "juice".

Spencer and Jacob came running up with bright blue Powerade.  

2 moms: That's not juice.

boys: yes it is! it's powerade! 

2 moms: Try again!

This is what we ended up with:

Carly: Bush's Baked beans

Rachel/Andrea combined and purchased $4 worth of Petite steaks: The girls thought they had some exotic meat called (sound it out with me) puh-tea-tae steaks.  

Jacob/Spencer combined and purchased: 1 can spaghetti-os, 1 can Ravioli, 1 bag tortilla chips,

1 string cheese, 2 single serve cheddar slices

Samantha: Western Family cheetos (yuck!) and 2 single serve cheddar cheese slices

Mason: 1 box hamburger helper crunchy taco flavor

Heather: head iceberg lettuce

I reserved my $2 for staples at home to round out. I thought I'd throw in a 1 lb package of hamburger for Mason's hamburger helper.

Mason however had a meltdown at the store, was warned, continued to throw a fit and lost his privilege to eat dinner with us so we shelved his hamburger helper and I changed my contribution to some leftover rice in the fridge and a can of cream of mushroom soup to pour over the steaks which we salted, peppered, floured and fried and simmered in the soup and milk for a gravy.  We had a lovely feast and by 9:30 we were done and the 2 moms were tired and ready for bed.  We said good bye and cleaned up.

The 3 youngest kids started fighting like crazy and I was pretty frustrated.   As I tucked Jacob in I expressed my frustration that after all the fun things I had provided for them he had chosen to end the day by fighting with his brothers and sisters.  I went to my room to wash my face and brush my teeth and then I would finish cleaning up.  I came downstairs to find Jacob quietly washing all the dishes and then he proceeded to sweep and mop the floor.  I was very touched by his kindness and my frustration turned to peace with his gift of love.

Vacation day #2: Productive.  Fun.  A little frenzied at times.  over.