Sunday playdate

It was absolutely beautiful here today. Bright sunshine, reasonable temperature. The fall colours were amazing. Should have taken more pictures. Tomorrow's forecast is rain - not a good one considering Papa is scheduled to return and our local airport is notorious for low cloud and cancelled flights. Here's hoping the cloud is high or even better, the sun is shining.

I took the kids to church this morning. Always trying to be a better mother than I probably should. They behaved pretty well. Thankfully the Sunday school was running, so we spent most of the time down in the basement learning about God in a more child friendly environment. Schmoo's friend M from school was there, so she was happy to see her. Bean clung to me like super glue. At the end of church, I asked M's mom whether she could come over for an impromptu playdate. Schmoo's been to their house a few times and I've been meaning to reciprocate. She was available! So after a trip to the mall for some sweet bargains on a few clothes for the kids, a Quiznos lunch (where we saw Schmoo's other friend Z, her brother and a whole bunch of their friends out with their Grandma), we swung up the mountain to pick up M.

Our first stop was the school playground for some outside time. Our trip there on Friday with C & H was such a success, I thought it would be a good starting point for the afternoon. Schmoo had her nose out of joint pretty quickly though. It's hard to be the oldest child and have a friend over, who starts playing with your younger brother and then isn't interested in doing the things you want to do. There were lots of discussions between Schmoo and I to try and get her out of her funk and back into the swing of things. The bathroom called us home and even there Schmoo couldn't just let herself play with Bean and M, doing what they wanted to do. Eventually they figured it out, but it did require me removing Bean from the equation for a bit. They ended up playing until 4pm and after a fresh baked cookie (okay from a tube of cookie dough) I took M home where I spent 1/2 hour talking to her mom while the kids ran around together some more.

We came home for tortellini supper, bath and bedtime. Important to get on track on Sunday night so everyone is feeling rested for the start of another busy week. Tomorrow will be another full day - school / work in the morning, dentist for Mama and then picking up Papa! We hope he has a safe and uneventful trip home while we're sleeping.

On a side note - the gigantic spider was NOT in its resting place this morning when I went downstairs, so now there is a rogue gigantic spider in my house. Needless to say I checked my shoes this morning before I put them on. When he reveals himself, I'm afraid it will be vacuumland for him.