Another Perfect Day (almost)

Saturday was great...Another crisp cool, fall-like day. Since our kids have nothing but shorts, tank-tops and flip-flops we decided to head to the outlets and get the kids outfitted for fall/winter. Those of you who have ever ridden in a car with my 2 children will understand and appreciate how much courage this took on our part...It is a 45 minute drive. I was so proud of Paul for being willing to take a family outing all in the same car : ) The kids did miraculously well on the way there. We headed straight to Baby Gap, caused a little bit of a scene and a very big mess, with the kids pulling everything off hangers and shelves. Noah wants to pick out his own clothes now and Alex is obsessed with shoes (she gets that from her dad...really). Noah kept trying to put something in my shopping bag and I kept taking it out without paying much attention and he finally snapped at me, "Mom, I want to buy these undies for Alex!" I have no idea why, but yes, he did have a package of little girls pink panties. What a helpful brother : ) After spending way too much money (growing kids are ridiculously expensive) we headed over to Stride Rite - Alex was happy as can be to try on hundreds of pairs of shoes - Noah, on the other hand...after bribing, pleading, threatening and cajoling we finally resorted to chasing him through the store (which he of course thought was hilarious) and holding him down just to hold a shoe up to the bottom of his foot. After that the kids and I headed off to the playground while Paul looked for a shirt and tie to wear with his new "interview" suit. No luck for Paul, unfortunately.

We drove through Wendy's and raced home (with Alex screaming half the time because she didn't want to share the Sprite with Noah) just in time for babysitting group. The family we swap with wanted to go test-drive some cars and the dealreships are closed at night...so we were scheduled to babysit from 3-5 and then we'd take our kids to their place from 6-8 for our date night. Alex was talking a nap, their little boy Caleb was falling asleep in my lap, and Noah and Ammon were coloring...at least that's what we thought they were doing. We could see them sitting in the dining room with the paper and crayon box out and they were laughing and having a great time together. Noah walks in a few minutes later with a look I know all too well - that guilty smile. I think he's thinking something like this: Mom, I want to tell you what I did because I'm so proud, but I know you won't be. Here's how our conversation actually went:

Noah: Mom, I've been cutting
Me: With your scissors?
Noah: Yeah
Me: What have you been cutting?
Noah: Ammon's hair!

I thought I was going to throw up. I raced over to Ammon who proudly showed off his new haircut...I brushed the top of his head with my hands and big chunks of hair fell to the floor. Panic. I was sure his parents would never trust us with their kids again or even want to have anything to do with us. Luckily, that was not the case. They thought it was pretty funny actually. I have to admit, I was relieved he'd cut a little boy's hair, who can get a buzz cut, and not a little girl's (like Alex)!

An hour later we were dropping our kids off and heading out for date night, just me and Paul. Considering what we'd spent on the kids clothes that day Paul suggested we head to McDonald's. We probably would have if it wasn't in the ghetto : ) Instead we treated ourselves to a shared burritto at Chipotle and a stroll through the book store. It was great! I don't think we'd have made it happy and sane through med school without date night.

That was our almost perfect Saturday - minus the haircut and I'd have called it perfect! Sorry to bore you all with the details, but for me it was one of the funnest days we've had as a family recently and I want to remember it (ok, I know "funnest" is not a word but I like it). Hope you all had a great Saturday too!