The trials & tribulations of Saturday

Yesterday was a busy day for us. The town hosted a safety day for the kids in the morning (basic first aid, how to handle minor emergencies, etc) followed by a Fireman's Parade The parade was actually, I think, intended as a jab at the businesses along our small town's main street. You see, at the last Christmas parade, the shops all got together and requested that the ambulances & firetrucks NOT use their sirens when going down these 2 blocks. The way the buildings are set up, the sound just reverberates & echos and feels 10x as loud as normal. So they didn't get to use the sirens in the December parade. And then they planned a parade and invited about 60 ambulances & fire trucks from neighboring areas. And blasted their sirens All. Along. Main Street. Go them, that is exactly my idea of revenge. They did at least hand out ear plugs before it started for the spectators.


Then we had OldestNephew's bday party. Just your usual party for an 11 yo boy. Nephew's father, my wonderful (*snort*) Brother, is however, and amateur comedian. Or thinks he is. He was setting up one of the new presents so the kids could go outside and play with it. This toy happened to be a pitching machine for whiffle balls. He set it up, and turned it on. Inside the house. Without thinking that my 2.5 yo ToddlerSon was sitting directly in front of him. So ToddlerSon has a nice little welt on his cheek from that.

Later in the evening was supposed to be the swim party for the baseball league. I tell you this to show that my kids were a little amped up from the day (not to mention candy from the parade, cake & ice cream and more candy) but the time 6 pm rolled around.

As time for the swim party rolled around, the sky was getting really [b]really[/b] dark. Severe thunderstorms opened up at 5:45, and the party had to be postponed.

The power goes out at 6. Since it didn't flicker and didn't come back on within 10-15 minutes, we knew we'd be dark for awhile. I had planned on all of us eating BBQ at the party, but that fell through. So we ended up with a cheese & cracker dinner by candle light (which the kids thought was fantastic and we should do at least once a week). Followed by the ice cream that was melting in the freezer.

We played cards for a bit (you may remember from a previous post that my kids are becoming quite the little Blackjack players), and then switched over to hit our stockpile of board games: yahtzee, chutes & ladders, boggle, kids scrabble, go fish, etc. And then it got too dark to see.

We retreated into the living room where DH & I flopped on the couch, the kids on the floor, and we all laid around, staring at the ceiling and whining about being bored. DH & I started talking about nothing, and of course the subject got on to certain movies and actors and the like. I must have started to get up a dozen times to "Put that one in, I haven't seen it for ages." before realizing I was an idiot. Not to mention how many times I tried to turn the fan on.

Just to [s]shut everyone up[/s] keep the peace, I started the kids playing 20 questions. Which we ended up doing for over 2.5 hours and had a blast. Dh thought we were being stupid, and wouldn't join in at first. But 20 questions (or in my house, 2400 questions, 326 silly guesses, and 289 cries of "I give up! What is it?") is addictive to those around you. And to my DearestHusband (*Double snort*) saying "This is something that can be found in, around or on the ocean" and then the item in question is a dive watch......well, I want to keep this post PG so I won't say what I thought about that.

When the power did come back on (by then we were all punch-drunk tired and laughing like crazy) the kids actually were going "Oh, noooooo! Can we keep playing? Pleeeeeease??" So we went around, shut everything off, relit the candles and played for another hour. It turned out to be one of the most fun evenings we've had for awhile.