Welcome to the tea party

This is the story of how I became a permanent guest, or since it's forever, member, of the Mad Hatter Tea Party.

I'm not sure I can stop giggling long enough to write this story.  It was after bowling. Sweetness and I had not bowled particularly well and dear Eric said, "how about we go buy new shoes for everyone to cheer you up?"

Let me put a couple of things out there:
1. I am not a huge fan of shopping.
2. Shoe shopping is one of the least fun things one can shop for when shopping.
3. Throughout the entire shopping ordeal, the kids were well behaved.

I turned and looked at Eric and I think that is when I began to giggle. His innocent and eager look. The girls were wearing dress shoes a size (or two) too small and he was trying to be helpful. I could see his sincerity and his naivete made me giggle.  I said, "I already have a headache coming on, let's just go home."  He insisted.

He thought we ALL should get new shoes, minus the baby. He also thought it would be a 15-20 minute trip into the store.

Anyone ever been shopping for kids shoes recently? Or ever? This is how it goes:

Dora!

Dinasours!

Light up shoes!

PINK!

Spiderman!

Hello Kitty!

NOT Pink!

Glitter!

High Heals!

BATMAN!

The choices are overwhelming, and that was just Eric's excitement. (BWAHAHAHAHA) Just kidding.

After the initial shock of racks of shoes to consider, it came time to figure out what size the children were.  CJ is a size 4 except when a size four is too small and a size five look like clown shoes on her feet. Sweetness is a size 13 or more likely a 13.5 but there are no 13.5 shoes anywhere in this shoe department. Kman, a size 10.5 so we went with 11 in hopes that in two weeks we don't have to repeat this experience. Next was a round of:

I like this shoe the most, but it's not in my size.
How do you like these shoes?
Mom, look at these shoes.
Here's my size, but I don't like the shoes.
These shoes itch.
These shoes don't have pink on them.
These shoes do have pink on them.
I want light up shoes.
I want light up Batman, Spiderman, dinasour shoes.
What do you think of these high heals, mom?  -I think you're gonna break your ankles and your neck walking, even though you do crazy stunts like back walkovers on the balance beam, dear.

Time to nurse the baby, in the middle of the shoe department. Poor little guy has been fighting his nap all day and pulled here and there and now just couldn't handle life anymore, without a snack and comfort from momma, only he didn't realize how close to crazy momma was.

My uncontrollable giggling began when Sweetness walked around the corner wearing these shoes.

Officially they are wedge sneakers. They look like moon boots. She was all smiles, and said, "It's like high heals too."  We are here for DRESS shoes, not crazy moon boots. "Mom," she says, "look, I can take them off this way AND they have a zipper!" Oh they were perfect for her, but NO. I am still laughing at her in these moon boots.

About one and a half weeks into this adventure, one kid is done and he is happily entertaining himself even if it causes minor heart attacks at times. Eric had pulled 2 pairs for himself and took this moment to try on and decide he would get the sneaker type shoes. Two done. Sweetness still wearing the moon boots, and as happy as she could be, we convince her to take them off. At this point, with CJ still trying on ridiculously dressy high healed shoes, and Sweetness having sensory issues with half of her options, I direct Sweetness to Hello Kitty and tell Eric, SOMETHING in this section should work.

Thinking he was being funny, Eric asked, "Don't you have your shoes picked out yet Cyndy?" While I was trying to be mad at his comment, but knowing he was joking, I threw him a look and continued laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Then CJ says, I love these shoes! AND they fit her! And they were reasonable shoes. Then I looked at the price and trying not to make her feel bad, because the giggles were kicking in, told her, there was no way we were paying $55 for sandals for her that she would grow out of in the next 6 months. Laughing at the idea that there are even those types of shoes and of course that the only pair that everyone can agree on and fit her, are those shoes!

 

They were similar to these. I was really wishing I had my camera along.

CJ finally says what she is looking for, I said, well at least now we have a direction to go. And re looked at her options, found a pair for her to try on and, with Eric's insistence, I walked over to see if I could find a pair of shoes.

I did. But the display model was the only one they had, I couldn't even find the left shoe to the display model. It was not the correct size and I just stood there staring at the display in disbelief.  The rest of the family joined me,  CJ had found a different pair of shoes, the ones she was trying on when I walked away felt funny between her toes. I explained the situation to Eric, who was still being a good sport, began searching through all of the boxes, searching for me.  I said, it's all right, let's go.

I head to check out while Eric heads with the kids for the necessary bathroom stop.  I did not have a clear head as I checked out. While the total was high, it was not as crazy high as I feared it might be. I waited and waited for the rest of the crew to show up and we headed out- for home, I thought.

FIRST, kids all put on their new shoes, of course. A chorus of "Daddy, put on your new shoes too!!" went out. He said he couldn't because he didn't have -get this- the right socks with him.

My head slowly turned to him, I asked, "What type of socks do you need to wear with these shoes?"

Incredibly, he responds with, "I was thinking black low ankle socks would be best."

As the main sock matcher, I asked, knowing the answer, "Do you have any of those types of socks?"

"No." He says with a smile.

"And you didn't pick any up while we were in the store?" my head might have literally began spinning at that point. If I hadn't received my invitation yet, here it came.

 Eric was hungry and wanted to take care of it now. I was not hungry, but the idea of getting home and having 5 hungry mouths to feed, was more than my brain could handle. We saw the sign -kids eat free every day after 4pm and it was 4:15pm, I said, go there.

While we finished up eating, CJ asked about her shoes and I pulled out the receipt. At this point in the day, I'm surprised I noticed the error. Eric's shoes, were not on the the receipt. No wonder the bill for shoes seemed reasonable. I thought his shoe's were included.  I tell Eric, we have to go back to the store, they didn't charge us for your shoes, I begin to laugh again.

After spending 2 weeks, 3 days and 58 minutes in the shoe department, I couldn't believe that I now had to go back and ask to pay for a pair of shoes that I thought I had already bought.  Trying not to laugh at the clerk as her face was in complete shock and awe that someone would return to the store to pay for merchandise, I was thrilled that she gave me a 30% discount and combined it with my original total and gave me an extra $10 store credit.

I don't think there is any cell reception or computer access at the Mad Hatter Tea Party, so you know where I am, even if you don't hear from me. I'm having a lovely time.

Figure it out.

I am not embracing a change going on in our house. Thankfully, I have some time, well not much time before things begin to change, but time before I have to fully embrace all the changes.

So as we are just now, beginning to talk about this, I would like to present you with a puzzle. A riddle, a picture mystery.

We are moving.

*sigh*

That part I knew would be happening. Having already lived in the same house for more than 4.5 years is a record for my husband and I. Moving is always hard. This one, I'm really having a hard time accepting.

Of course a big part of that, is because we have lived here a long time (for us) and have fully established ourselves. We have our school, church, neighborhood, friends, friends who are now family, we have great winter weather that draws our family to us. We'll have had five incredible years here. Such a blessing!

The other part, is WHERE we're going. That is the part that I am really struggling with.  No better way to say it! Eric is excited, looking at career options and retirement opportunities that might present themselves. The kids are ready for a move. I have hesitations, and ones that no one else wants to hear.

I am trying to find the positives.

We'll see pyramids.

We might take a gondola ride.

Maybe we'll try our hand at pulling out the sword.

Or take our picture in front of the Eiffel Tower.

I'm sure at some point we'll take in the circus.

I hear the food buffets are everywhere and delicious.  Our family likes to eat! Maybe at a restaurant up high in the clouds!

Have you figured out where we're going yet?

For anyone thinking of, Egypt, Italy, France, England or any other fabulous country, sorry, not there.

We're staying good ol' state side.  But it does NOT have anything that looks like this:

This a gorgeous photo of Winnona, MN that my friend took. I would gladly move to anywhere that looked like this out my window, yesterday!

Okay, that might be a lie. I have never visited this place, so maybe there is a park somewhere that can resemble this lake picture.  Not holding my breath though.

Eric moves soon. Too soon. To do his cross training. Oh by the way, he is changing air frames and the new one, and their missions, also makes my heart heavy and worried, compounding my resistance to this move. His training is only a few hours from our house, so we'll keep the kids in school and current activities while he does training. We're hoping to get to see him a few weekends.

Hope you have figured out where we'll be headed after his training is done -which our move the family time frame is still to be determined, because I'm not ready to say it out loud yet. It might make it really happening.

I let them,

I let them go to school. I did. I was in denial about it starting today, and yet, I got them up and ready and made each a lunch and walked them to school. I did, I did!

 Showing off new socks from Grandma, that go very well with first day of school outfits!

 Third and First grade...here they come! Very excited!

 Upon arriving, I realized I had not filled out the paperwork we got from the teachers on Thursday, or even where it might be at this moment.

 See ya later girls, we've got some serious playing to do!

Once at school, CJ found her line and friends right away!

 Our brave Sweetness, became hesitant, with the swarm of students, staff and parents everywhere!

 But she settled right into her desk and looked happy when I left her.

An old pro at all of this!

Now, I guess it is time for me to stop being in denial about school starting, eh em, I mean has started and find that paperwork, fill it out, and get organized for this year of school.  Be still my heart!

Freshing up

Late this past spring we painted our house. The same colors, just a freshen up, maintaining of our home.  Since we changed the color of our front door, these chairs needed to be painted too.

 Thanks for your help!

Our fence gate also needed some serious attention, CJ played Tom Sawyor and did an outstanding job.

 Front and back

We didn't limit the painting to outside! Look at what a couple of coats of paint did for this tired cabinet.

 Pinterest idea...put a rubber band around can to remove excess paint from paint brush. It worked, but not sure any better than just the side of the can.

 Everything around here has little hands helping.

 Amazing! It used to have front doors. Between all the moves, they broke.  But for something we bought a dozen years ago at a big box store, it is looking pretty good.

Also sporting a new look is Doodle. He was having so much fun playing with his big sisters.

Celebrating!

 I truly hope that you had a wonderful day and continue to have a blessed weekend with lots of fun memories.

 We headed over to a small town for their local parade and festivities. We went in 2009, but hadn't been back. We really enjoy their day of fun!

Lots and lots of fire trucks, in part for the fun that follows the parade. Horses, and Oxen?

 This is an Oliver 550 tractor. You may not care. But this is a tractor I have driven a lot. Not recently, but growing up, it was our all around tractor.  So fun to see in the parade.

 AFTER the parade is the firefighter's water fight!  It is a soaking good time for all!

 We learned which departments have the best aim, so call those if your house is on fire. We also noticed which ones to call for the best eye candy.

Both boys were unable to stay awake for all the fun! Above, Doodle, 8 months, July 4th 2013, 
Below Kman 6 months, July 4th 2009.  That is a lot of excitement!

We headed back for the laser show. We were really excited to see just what a laser show is all about. However, a storm blew in and it was canceled right as it was supposed to start. Lots of disappointment, but we watched the fireworks on our drive home.

See ya next time!