Parades and rain DON'T mix..

Well today is BRENTWOOD days here in our little neck of the woods complete with drinks, snacks, stands selling junk and a PARADE!! yippeee!! A parade you say?? well that must be FUN!! let's GO! Well it would be fun if the sun was shining, you had a comfie chair to watch it from and you had NO CHILDREN to cart around. We weren't WATCHING the parade we were IN it, dragging our 3-4yr olds in the pouring rain down for about 2KM to show our support for our kid's preschool. Umm let me just say I was wrestling ALOT this morning with the whole thought of not going because of the rain....turns out I should have been thinking about OTHER factors as well.

So we find the kids all lined up at the school where we were to meet, holding balloons and looking all excited even with the rain teaming down. Ok, we can do this it's only rain right? and we chose to live on the West Coast and if a little rain scares you, well you better go find another place to live! So we start out on our walk journey. Now I should have found out how far the parade was because I would have known RIGHT off that my kids would not be walking that far without a TONNE of whining. Some of the things I heard along the way: "This parade is really boring"...."Both my legs are broken from walking sooo far"......."Can we go to the parade now?" Umm honey? we are IN the parade right now......ugh it was a trying morning to say the LEAST. Note to self: The Brentwood parade is WORTH missing.

So we (my Mom came with us..thank GOD) got back into the van and went to get a latte at the local coffee joint to warm up or cold, wet to the bone bodies. Came home and had a sit down for about 20 mins and then had to get ready for SPORTBALL!! I really hate these Saturday mornings. I love that the kids interact with other kids and get some exercise, yadda yadda yadaa but DANG I feel like I should paint my van yellow and have a meter running. So while ds was at sportball, my Mom, dd and I went into Sidney and went birthday shopping for a boy that's in ds's preschool and the party is RIGHT after sportball. Can this day be over soon PLEASE??

So $35 later..holy DYNA do these birthday kill a pay cheque!! We have had 3 birthdays in a row and it's killing the old account! No one shows up with just dollar store toys anymore..oh noooooo..they have to be at least $30 which is ludicrous for a 5 yr old!! So I slapped down the debit card and we went to Starbucks for our second latte of the day. While we were there, dd decides to try and pull away from me and grabs onto on of those yellow "Wet Floor" signs and slips and falls on her ass but not before pulling down the sign which collapses and makes the loudest "BANG!" you have ever heard. I think some elderly people in there are now in the ER hooked up to heart monitors. She looked up at my face which must have had the "OMFG kid I am going to....." look and she says "Soorrry Mom....SORRRYYY" I just lifted her up by her hand and we vacated quickly with my poor Mom in tow. She knows the drill when the kids are being bad.....I don't like a scene and we MOVE baby to a second locale where I can "talk" to them about what just transpired. I told my Mom that we need to invest in a vineyard somewhere far, FAR away that has a B & B on it and some hot pool boys to serve the wine.

So now I am home. Carys is in bed having a much needed nap, Gareth is at the birthday party at the bowling alley in Sidney and needs to be picked up in a hour and a half and my husband is asleep downstairs after working night shift last night. It is getting really windy and is raining outside and this is my only time for a recharge of the old batteries for the rest of the day until bedtime. ACK no time for that! LOOK AT THIS HOUSE!!! toys everywhere, laundry, dishes.....back to motherhood **sigh**