Plan It...But Go With The Flow...

Our youngest grandmonster, Bailey, is learning to play soccer. She has practice with her team and then they play a little game. Her mom calls her the 'cutest train wreck in cleats'. We understand she is learning some important skills like: picking four leaf clovers while on the field and one should not pretend to be a puppy or a pony during practice or play.

Believe it or not, out of her entire schedule there were only two days Claude and I could go to see her.  Then one of those days became unavailable. That left Saturday, May 11th. We asked if we could come on Friday and spend the night and then go to her game at 9am on Saturday instead leaving Sadieville at O'dark Thirty to get there Saturday morning. This was going to work for the Marx family.

Friday we did some things on our respective 'to-do lists' and then headed to LaGrange. We did stop for a date of sorts at Chili's for lunch during our drive.

It was raining and sometimes very hard. Andie called during our drive to be sure we understood her practice and game might be canceled because of the rain conditions. We felt like we needed to press on as this was our only opportunity. So on we pressed. However, this was the most scary drive we ever had on Hwy 53 between Shelbyville and LaGrange. It felt constantly like Claude would hydroplane at any moment. He was even going slowly. We told Andie we would stop at the end of her block and wait for the Mini's to get off their school bus, load them in the car and drive down the street to her home. This allowed her a little extra time a school. The Mini's ran from that bus and loved jumping in the car with us.

Hayden is totally into the Titanic. He has a 1958 movie about the Titanic titled "A Night to Remember" he wanted us to see. He popped that movie in and we found snacks and settled in to watch the movie. Unfortunately the DVD was bad and we had to shift gears. Our second choice was Phineas and Ferb.

Andie got home and after the show was finished she pulled out new games for the kids to play. She finds lovely things at consignment sales and stores them away until they are needed. Out came an electric kit for Hayden and a LiteBright game for Bailey. At one point they paused and showed Claude their creations.

Andie brought home brown bag sacks with popcorn. These were enjoyed and an empty bag happened to be left by Claude. The wheels started to grind in Claude's brain and I could see what was going to happen. I also could hear some kernals of corn still in the bag. I stopped him long enough to empty the bag. Then he called the Mini's over and proceeded to entertain them with his time honored trick of blowing up a paper bag and bursting it. The Mini's were in awe. Andie and I were grateful that those kernals didn't go all over the family room carpet. Then it hit Hayden and the little man started to laugh and try to talk but he was laughing so hard he couldn't get the words out.

To say I love it when he gets laughing like this would be a HUGE understatement.  What set Hayden off in these peels of laughter. His eight year old brain conceived what a great prank this would be to pop a paper bag like that when someone was driving a car.  Oh my...he is so close to being a teenager some times.

 

Hayden and Andie went to the Mother/Son Dance Friday evening.

That left Bailey to take care of the remaining three adults. Hayden left Claude with homework. He gave him several of his books about the Titanic to read. Claude tried dutifully to plow through them and Bailey was only too eager to support him in that effort. She even made it much more enjoyable by covering them with a cushion for the chair.

We managed to get Bailey to bed before Hayden and Andie got home. Hayden was allowed to stay up a little bit longer to visit with Claude and me. We talked about his evening. I asked him if he told his mom thank you for taking him to the dance. His reply..."I don't have to tell her thank you. The last dance did that."  Oh my!!!

 

Late Friday night Michael got the eMail stating the Saturday soccer practice and game for Bailey were canceled. Just too much rain and the fields were too full of water.

 

Saturday morning Hayden tapped on the wall to our bedroom and I got up and took my cell phone to snuggle with him a bit. When I opened our bedroom door, there stood Bailey with Andie's cell phone. We quietly joined Hayden in his bed. Knowing Andie went to bed feeling awful, I wanted to kids to be quiet so all the other adults could get a little more sleep. I gave Hayden my cell phone and we all snuggled in his bed for a while.

 

After a while we tiptoed really quietly to the main level of the house. Hayden found a show they could quietly watch. Eventually Michael came downstairs ready for his day. He was off to get a hair cut. He returned with donuts for our breakfast. Yum. Claude showed up next. Then Andie finally joined us.

 

Our plan for this weekend was to have lunch with the Marx's and then to head back to Sadieville.  Bailey needed her bangs cut. We gave Claude and Hayden our sandwich orders and sent them off to Subway to get lunch for all of us. Andie, Bailey and I went upstairs to play 'beauty shop' with Bailey. We were quite surprised when Bailey said she wanted all her hair cut. She put her hands under her chin to show how short she wanted it. Yike!!

 

We talked to her about it a bit, took her to the bathroom and showed her by holding up her very long hair to see how it would look that short, explaining that once it was cut it couldn't be glued back on, etc. We finally settled on a plan to cut her bangs first. Then cut a good 3-4 inches off the bottom and let her see if that was short enough. If it wasn't we could also cut more off. Let the cutting of hair begin...

 

We ended up with a length that 'tickled her shoulders'. She loved that phrase. Andie said it to her and it did make her very happy. She was so excited about her new haircut she went upstairs and dressed in her own special clothes to look just perfect in her new hairdo.

After the boys got home we all sat down to a nice lunch together. Then we headed outside to retrieve some of Andie's green thumb plants that were growing outside their bounds. These plants will make their home on our hill.

As we finished up our plant retrieval. Andie and the Mini's disappeared. Soon they came out of the garage clearly carrying gifts. They were bringing me Mother's Day presents. I got a set of watering spikes made out of clay. You fill a big bottle with water and turn it upside down into the spike which plunged into the soil by your plant. These should be a most handy gift for when we travel and leave plants that need water while we are gone. Hayden also wrote this lovely card for me.

 Then we were said our goodbyes and headed back to Sadieville. Nice plan we had and when it fell through we still had a lot of fun.