Free Chickin....Yeah Baby!

My good friend Suzi called me at lunch time and told me if we dressed like cows we would get free meals at Chick-fil-A. Of course I thought, what a hoot, let's go for it. We spent the afternoon making our costumes. You would think it was Halloween. Blake was totally into it. He wanted us to save his costume for Halloween. We will see if it makes it. Jack was not too into it. "He is 11." Skip said. "Who cares," I said "live a little. Go a little crazy!"


Sam was using his ingenious imagination {Same kid that was a "Stone cutter" from the movie Mountain to the Lord, "Candle" and a "laundry bag" for Halloween}

He decided that cows have pink utters. He also thought that they would be better 3-D. They looked hilarious!

As you can see Skip is not in the pictures. I asked him if he wanted me to bring a cow costume for him. He declined. He did however, meet us there and thought we looked odd.

1.Free food
2.Happy People
3.Imagination

The Park

Sam always takes care of Claire.

We went park and had a load of fun. Claire was very protected by her brothers. Everywhere she went, she had a shadow watching over her.

Sam is a little angel he talks so sweetly to her and makes sure she is safe.

Another Aviation Museum

We can't get enough of museums it seems. This one was right here in Richmond. We were dressed up because we went straight from Jack and Sam's piano recital. They were all mad because they couldn't change. I gave them a choice, you can either stop complaining and we go to the museum and have a nice time or one more word and we go home. They stopped. We had a great time. The highlight was this, ..... do you know what I can't remember the name.... I know my boys do though. It was cool and I do remember some facts about it like; it uses 500 to 800 gallons of gas when it sits an idles for an hour, it can fly coast to coast in one hour and seven minutes, it last flew at an air show in 1999, they only produced 33 of them and it is the fastest plane to date at Mach three.

Sam is checking the engine out. He loves mechanical things.

I love that my kids get into the spirit of the moment. Even Claire enjoyed looking at all the old planes and pretending to fly. We watched a short clip on the maneuvers of the f-14, they liked it, but when I asked them if they would want to fly like that they all said, "No". They will just have to watch from the ground and be amazed. Maybe they can be the designers of the planes.

The plane is called "Lockhead SR 71 Blackbird". You can see the kids read the signs, even Claire. I got caught by a museum worker. What I mean is, he started talking to me and was very nice I just couldn't find away to break off the conversation. You know the type.

Sweet Hook-ups!

I have to say my sister Maryann and her husband Shane have the "Sweet Hook-Ups" not to mention "Skills". Oh ya, they got "Skills". Whenever I have a question regarding DC I call the Clark's and they Hook me up!

I was walking down 7th Avenue in DC and I thought to myself where Can I get some delicious food. I immediately hit the speed Dial button on my phone marked "Sweet Hook-Ups" and I am talking to the culinary duo of Maryann and Shane. They direct me to The National American Indian Museum, at the Smithsonian, which happens to be right next door to where I am going{National Air and Space Museum} SWEET!

We walk in to this beautiful Museum and get directions to the Cafe. There we find a dazzling array of North American Indian fare. As I talked to Maryann on the Phone, Shane was telling me walk around look at it all so you can make a good choice. He was so right. He also recommended the Wild Rice with Cranberries and Watercress, Delish. The boy's got Indian fry bread with honey-butter,and fruit, they were happy. Skip got a buffalo burger. He said it was OK.

Look, if you want to eat well, and I do. If you are traveling in a strange city, chances are Maryann has been there, probably within the year. So,...You must call the Clark's. They do have all the "Sweet Hook-Ups".

I will talk about their skills in another post, because they got "Skills"!

I Love to See The Temple

We went to the Temple on Friday to start off our little trip. We went to the visitor center and enjoyed our tour with one of the sister missionaries. She talked of Christ and his love for us. Then she challenged us to have more charity towards each other. She then gave each child a picture of Christ to put in their room. It brought the right spirit to the day.

I love taking my children to the temple. We also saw a bride come out of the Temple and Claire just about flipped out. She said, as we walked past her,"Let's go talk to her, Mom." She would have too if I didn't grab her hand to lead her away. The rest of the day she asked where is Mary, I want to see Mary.

The Temple is a source of peace and hope for me. Skip and I were able to attend a late session. What a blessing to go with your husband to the Temple. Jack watched the kids in the hotel. We left strict instruction as to what should happen while we were gone and we were surprised to come back from the Temple to find them all asleep, MIRACLE!

One last thing, when you are the mom you pack everyones stuff. Then you pack your stuff. Sometimes, you make mistakes. Look at this Picture. There are two things wrong. What do you think they might be? I had to go to the Temple like this.

Typical Drive!

Yesterday we had a great time in DC. I only have the pictures from yesterday, because Skip was in charge of the camera and he downloaded all the pictures on to his computer. So we are going back wards. After a great day we were driving home and we stopped at a grocery store. I bought food to eat for dinner{ it would have been cheaper to go to fast food, but you can't get hummus any where that I know of}

I got back in the car after shopping for 20 min, the kids were watching a movie in the car. We drove away, got on the freeway, I started making sandwiches and we are not on the freeway for more than three minutes when Blake starts to cry that he needs to use the bathroom.{ isn't this typical} It took us about ten more minutes to find a gas station, all the while Blake was crying. We finally find one. I take Blake in and it turns out he is sick. We spend a half an hour in the bathroom. Blake was crying and whimpering the whole time. I am sure all the ladies that came in to that bathroom wondered what is going on with this kid crying{ Skip was starting to wonder what was going on} finally I decide we will just have to take our chances in the car. Skip moves Blake's seat up closer to the front. We give him a bag and tell him a hundred times in the bag Blake in the Bag. Skip has a TUMs and we give him that, say a little prayer and we are off again. Blake goes to sleep. We get home in about a half an hour. Just shy of 11:00pm. We are all tired and put everyone to bed. Whew! Typical

Sam had the right Idea before we rode the Metro. Why didn't we have Blake try like Sam did? Typical!

Where's Laurene?

We went to DC again and this time took Skip. We had a total blast. I will update tomorrow on the trip. We just got home and I am beat.

OK, just one more before I fall asleep at this thing!

We went to the I-MAX theater and saw a 3-D space station movie.It was so funny to watch my kids try to grab every thing they saw. The movie was incredible. Everyone but Claire loved it.{We had to pay for her,which is ridiculous since she sat on Skip's lap the whole time and covered her ears. Then she feel asleep towards the end.} I sat by Blake and Jack and they were all smiles. I ask Sam about just a little while ago while I tucked him in what part he liked. He said he loved the part where the astronauts threw the oranges at the camera and he tried to catch it. It was a great day.

No Cell Phones

I decided to go to traffic court instead of mailing in the ticket and paying. I had never been to court before. The proceedings were filled with all sorts of people. Three of them were handcuffed and taken into custody charged with multiple felonies. The charges were varied from marijuana possession, assault and battery, driving with revoked license, and carrying stolen property. Some of the excuses these people had were hilarious and pathetic.

I thought I really needed to be on time. I didn't want the judge mad. I knew I was guilty and planned on pleading guilty, hoping that I would get a lesser charge or have it dropped because it was a first offense. {I admit I do drive fast, but since getting a warning and a ticket in Feb. I have decided to slow down, seriously I have.}

As I entered the court house, on time but just barely, the guards informed me that I would have to take my phone back to the car, as it was not allowed. Well being the crazy person I am I freaked out , in my mind. These are my thoughts;

I will be totally late if I go back to the car, the car was about five minuets away,10 minutes no time. I will be totally in trouble and the judge will be mad. What do I do, what do I do! I can't go back to the car. I know, I will bury my phone in the mulch in the flower bed outside the court house and then retrieve it after. Really smart right? So I look around, no one is looking and I bury it.

I go in feeling good and I am on time , which I was obsessing about. I get in to court, sit and start to listen. The proceedings were taking forever and I realised that it didn't matter if I was there right at 1:30. In fact the judge could careless. Then my mind began to wonder what if someone calls me. I forgot to turn off the ringer, no it is on vibrate , or is it?.... And what about that mulch, oh my, it will be all over my phone. I am going to freak out if I don't go get it right now. I have to move.

The officer that pulled me over is outside in the hall with three other people waiting to testify in yet another long case involving a lady that was doing something she shouldn't.{Assault, hit and run and driving under the influence} I got up and went out to talk to him. He said I had time to retrieve my phone.{I am sure he thought I was nuts, but he was nice to me anyway}I got outside and thought what if my phone is gone, then I searched and at first I couldn't find it. Then I did. WHEW!

I took it to the car, called Beth, apologized for being so late. Then went back into court. My case ended up being the second to last and I was there for an hour and a half. The judge was nice and so was the officer. Long story short, I get to go to traffic school, case dismissed.

Run,Run,Run

This is a little grainy. I don't know why it only took four hours to get this done. So frusterating!!! I am learning this so slowly, especially since I am teaching myself.

Day Trip

On Friday the kids and I took a day trip to Washington DC. We Started out from Richmond { We were listening to a book on CD " Prince Caspian" from the Narnia series, It is quite adventurous and set the tone for our adventure. Needless to say when we arrived at the metro the kids were in the right mood.} and drove to Springfield where we jumped on to the metro and took the train into the city. While I was trying to obtain the tickets from the machine {which by the way is not very reader friendly, especially when you have four kids asking allot of questions} a very nice man asked me what are you trying to do, so I told him and he did it all for me { I learned nothing, accept that when you have a stroller and four kids and looked confused and frustrated strange men, although nice , will stop and save you}

The train ride was a highlight for the kids. We arrived on the Mall at noon and ate a packed lunch. Jack and Sam kept saying how weird it was to be in a place that they had seen in pictures and read about it was really surreal for them. We walked toward the Washington Monument and then to the Jefferson to see the cherry blossoms ,which were quite spent already. All the while we would stop here and there whenever the kids wanted to, to look and talk, run and jump, we were in no hurry. They did think we had to walk quite a bit though. We took a break at the Tulip library and painted the scene. The kids took about an hour here to paint and talk , run and play in the over grown holly trees that created a canopy of forts in which they could pretend to be knights and fight one another. We raced through the Cherry trees laughing and chasing one another.

We then walked and walked back up the mall to our final destination the "National Gallery of Art Museum". We stopped in the sculpture garden where we soaked our feet in the pool of cool water{ I am sure it was not to clean,"Self Talk" that is all I can say}. Blake said this was his favorite part of the trip. I am so glad I could suppress my demons so Blake could have this memory. On to the Art museum were we went on a not so successful scavenger hunt for works of art. Using the book "You Can't take A Balloon Into The National Gallery " as are guide we searched for the different works of art that the book contained through out the gallery. We had fun looking and riding in huge elevators.

It was 5:00 and the museum closed. We went outside and played in another fountain, walked slowly {I mean slow, at this point Claire was done and would only take very small steps. I think it was a silent protest} back to the mall, sat on the cool grass and ate some huge strawberries "yummy". Walking slowly again, then a little faster as I picked up a very weary Claire, we arrived at the metro around 6:20 and navigated our way back to Springfield. We were tired but very satisfied with our day. No fighting and lots of smiles.

We did have to make a 'Trader Joe's' stop and then we were on our way back to Richmond. The traffic at 8:15 was not too bad. I could feel the beginning of a migraine coming on. It hit full force just before Fredicksburg.{ you might think this had to do with the stress of the day, but really the day was a joy and not very stressful} What a challenge to drive, the headlights were almost to much to bare. I held my hand up to my eyes to shield them from the light and the kids were very quiet for me. I drove slowly and we made it home safely but late. I went directly to bed. The kids did to with Skips help.

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream.....for ice ceam?

After a weekend of total chaos and getting ready for "Enrichment Dinner " I was feeling a little guilty. On the way to our Co-op I pulled into an Ice cream shop and surprised the kids with a treat. They were all smiles. I was too. Sometimes in the middle of a hectic day it is nice to take a little breather. Thanks to KaLise for making my day less hectic towards the end. This is my schedule for the day: After being up til 2:00am making a Relief society jeopardy game for the enrichment night I was up at 6:30 to put the finishing touches on the decorations, then into the shower and eat{ take a lot of B-complex} I started getting the kids in showers and baths at 8:oo and then to eat breakfast in shifts{ Why baths today? Hey it's bath day, so we bathe} We had everything ready and in the car by 9:20 and us in the car and on the way to Joannes because I needed more gold tulle for the decorations. Luckily the store was not to busy at 9:45 so we zipped in and out( I even was able to make all the cuts I needed to at the store ) The kids love the fabric store, NOT! We were on are way to the church to set up at 10:30 ( we had to make sure that we had priesthood there so we could be in the building and KaLise's husband came to the rescue, Thank You Mike. We wouldn't be able to set up with out him) Everything set up by 11:15 we are fast. It looked really nice. Then we got some food{Chick fil' a} Fast food is never fast with four kids and honey for their chicken, very messy. Now we are off to Co-op with 20 min to spare{ surprise the kids with ice cream treat} I talk to KaLise and tell her that how between 4:15 and 5:30 I am going to make 50 cream puffs. REALLY!!!!? I have it all planned out in my head. Yes I am NUTS. I didn't want to burden anyone else. KaLise was like "NO WAY Laurene I will take care of it! " So between 4:15 and 5:30 I was able to feed my kids and hold my crying desperately tired Claire. Then Off to basketball practice. All the kids had to come because my sitter was out of town. They did OK sat on the bench and looked at books. After practice, on to enrichment,late, but there in time to lead the games{FUN, FUN,FUN} We did have a good time lots of laughter. After, practice for a musical number for Sunday's Relief Society meeting then finish cleaning up the gym and off to Wal mart in the pouring rain for cereal and diapers. I finally get home at 10:15. Talk to Jack{ who is supposed to be asleep} , Talk to Skip, wash my face{ no those winkles are permanent they won't come off} Go to bed! AAHHHHHHHH...........

Operation Anyone

We went to the science museum today and played operation. Claire and Blake had fun trying to reach into the huge body and get the pieces. Claire decided it was easier to use her hands. She also found that it was fun to sound the alarm and make the nose red. Blake went around over and over again to get all the pieces.We also took a ride in a virtual simulator. The ride told us that we would be shrunk so that we could travel though the human body. As the machine started to shake Blake remarked " Dad are they really going to shrink us." He tends to take things quite literally. The night before we were watching "Swiss Family Robinson" and Blake wanted to know if the bullets they were using were real or pretend. I think I need to be careful what he sees or at least reasure him of the truth of things.