Rock - Paper - Scissors

It really is funny how fast kids catch on to a stupid game. When we're trying to decide who gets to pick the game, book, or movie, it usually comes down to rock paper scissors. Lena has a hard time with it however, and she'll usually stick to only one of the three choices, which puts her at a disadvantage. Last time we had a movie night, I decided to even the odds and use the "toothpick method". The three older kids each had their movie picked out and were all excited about this new non-discriminatory game of lot-drawing. I made sure to ask each of them if they were going to be ok with the results, whatever they might be. They were all agreed - you should have seen the smiles on their faces. When Lena won, and Snow White was the winning movie, two of those smiles mysteriously disappeared. The whining didn't last too long though, because I'd forgotten it was a school night. Maddie and Daniel were pretty upset over the whole thing, not just because they got the short end of the stick, but also because Lena got to stay up and watch her movie.

Day out with the kids

Last Saturday was a pretty good day. Christine spent the weekend in Spokane at a conference with her girlfriends, and after putting in extra hours at work during the week, I was able to stay home all weekend long. The kids and I had planned on going to a couple parks, but it was looking like a cold and rainy day, SO we took advantage of the "bus part" of the Bike-Walk-Bus-Missoula event that they were having all week (see pic above). First, Maddie wrote out a list of all the things we were going to do, and then we packed the backpack with the essentials (water, granola bars, raisins, diapers, wipees, books). I decided to take the jog stroller since Mei Mei would probably fall asleep at some point during the afternoon. That was the right decision.

We took the bus (for free) down to the mall where they proceeded to play on the train, go to the bathroom, go look at all the animals in the pet store, go to the bathroom, get lunch at Subway and Noodles Express, go to the bathroom, go to the candy store, go to the bathroom, go play on the train some more, and go to the bathroom. We spent about 3 and a half hours at the mall (half of which was spent in the bathroom), and then we got on another bus that took us to the Caras Park and the Children's Museum. On the way (this was ~30 minute bus ride) the kids read their books that we packed in the backpack. The carousel at the Caras Park was giving out free rides to anyone that walked or rode a bike or the bus to get there, but since we had less than an hour before the last bus of the day, we had to vote on either the carousel or the museum. They went with the museum. While the Meimers slept in the stroller, the other kids decided to completely cover their faces in paint from the face-paint station. Maddie painted Daniel's face all black because he wanted to be Darth Vader. By the time we left the museum, me and my colored children had to run to the bus-stop because we were behind schedule, but also because it had started raining again.

It was definitely a bath night. Surprisingly, the paint all came off, and not surprisingly, they all slept like logs all night while I watched a few horror movies. Hey, the wife was out of town and I had to take advantage, right?