This weekend was a long weekend for Labor Day. We had hitched our fortunes to a camping trip with seven other families from church. We bought our gear, we planned a doggy holiday for the pooch, we received approval to travel with the baby and re-arranged his parental visits, and we counted down the days with breathless terror over camping with four children excitement.
Then, it started to rain. Taking inspiration from Small Sun's recent debut in the school musical "Noah's Amazing Cruise", it rained and rained and rained. And the forecast for the whole weekend? Rain.
Thursday night the phone calls started buzzing. Ringing and texting, the inquiries started to fly. "If it keeps raining like this, do you still want to go?" "Do YOU want to go?" "Should we cancel?" We cancelled.
Friday was a gorgeous day, and Saturday was pretty nice too. But then overnight it poured and poured and we all slept like cozy cats in our beds, listening to the rain and thanking our lucky stars we were not in a tent with three children and an infant on a cold night, with the rain coming down in sheets.
Well, if you've been counting down to a camping trip for weeks, you have to find something to fill the void for three very eager children.
This is what we did over the holiday weekend.
We went couch shopping. Herding four children through endless furniture displays would have been easier if we had pre-recorded a message that said "don't touch glass statues, don't jump on the couches, don't lay on the beds, climb off of the coffee table, stop running" and left it running on repeat.
Then, we went to Costco. Back in Nashville I scorned the giant box of savings, but now that they've opened one near our house in Sydney, and we are currently a family of six and actually use pallets of toilet paper, I decided to give it a try. As we approached the giant warehouse I explained to the kids "this is a little piece of America in Australia. Not all of America is like this, but this idea of buying lots and lots of stuff, for as little money as possible, is very popular in America."
Oh my goodness, I can't believe we made it out alive! The carts are huge! We bought so much stuff! Finch was exhausted since we rolled right through his nap and forgot to give him a snack. Baby had to be fed while I held him, walking through the store (he's much to heavy for me to do that!). Then he completely soaked through his outfit and I didn't have a spare (grumble, grumble, grumble, Aldi diapers, grumble), and Finch's diaper sagged to his knees with ripeness.
By the time we got out, buying an 18" pizza for $14.99 seemed the most logical thing to do! (I have never seen a pizza so huge in Australia. I forgot they could even make them that big! In Sydney you spend that much money for a pizza 1/3 the size.) The Captain also got three "smoothies" and when Finch saw him carrying them, but he couldn't have one yet because there was no straw, he just lost it, falling down and crying inconsolably, the poor darling. People stared at the mother with three children (one wailing), the giant cart overflowing with bargain goods and a baby car-seat, and the man juggling a leaky infant and three smoothies. We were a sight.
Saturday we recovered from Friday. It took us until 4 p.m. to make it into the city for the Salsa Festival. Each show featured costumes tinier than the last. At the final stage we watched an amazing Brazillian drum band, and then I saw the dancers queing up off stage. The paraded on in amazing feathered splendor (on their heads).
"Mom, why are those girls showing their bums?" from Sprout on my right.
"Mom! why can we see those girl's butts?" from Small Sun on the left.
"Well, they only had a little bit of material for their costumes and they wanted to make the amazing head-dresses, and they ran out of feathers to put down on the bottom of their costumes." I explained.
After a thoughtful silence, Small Sun stated matter-of-fact-ly, "well, they did use enough to cover their hole." Ahem. Yes. Yes, they did.
We left the salsa festival (and the breezy bums) to enjoy dinner with friends at one of the few authentic Mexican restaurants in Sydney.
Sunday we went to church in the rain and shook our heads sadly with the seven other families whose weekend plans were also disturbed.
That afternoon we snuggled in under piles of blankets to watch one of my all-time favorite movies from my childhood, The Black Stallion. The kids were talking the whole time, trying to figure out what was happening and what would happen next! The Captain and I looked over their heads at each other, the three of them snugged between us and the baby passing back and forth.
We put mattresses down that night and rigged up a tent with sheets and twinkle lights for a night of magical indoor camping. After baths and stories, snuggles, and prayers, we kissed them goodnight and admonished them to go to sleep. Nearly two hours later all three had been banished to their own beds, after insults were yelled, soft toys were thrown, and the twinkle lights were turned off. So much for a magical indoor-camping experience. Heh.
Today we returned to the couch store, to finalize our order, before going to the hardware store to buy a birthday present. Once home I escaped into my garden to try to find some sanity (my insides seem a bit wobbly from the noise and intensity level that comes with the school holiadys). After an hour of planting seeds, I walked with Small Sun and Sprout to a birthday party at a nearby friend's house.
The long-weekend is over. It might not have been camping, but the staycation was colorful, productive, and relaxing at a couple points as well. And thankfully, "they did use enough to cover their holes."
I just about fell out of my chair with Small Sun's "hole" comment. Out of the mouths of babes! Lol.
Posted by: Kelly | 04 October 2011 at 03:22 PM
Yes as did I!!! In fact I'm still laughing out loud! Now we play guess that movie: "Well you do beat all, child".
Glad you made the most of the holiday and a potentially disappointing scenario although I'm far from surprised. You always pull things off with class! xo
Posted by: Adelle | 04 October 2011 at 07:45 PM