Saturday...

I'm going on day 6 of having Matt gone. He got home from NYC late (as in the kids were in bed)on Thursday night, and then left Friday (before naps) for Iowa City. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when he returns home. Being a single parent is tough. I tip my hat to all the single parents out there, it's a much harder job than most realize....


Since Matt was home on Friday morning when the kids woke up, he went with me to take Katherine to and pick her up from school. She loved showing off her class room and new friends to her daddy. She's such a big girl now that she's in the 4 year old class!!


After we picked her up from school, we decided to head to Culver's for lunch. It's the one "fast food" type restaurant that she likes, so Culver's it was!! Shortly after we sat down and started eating, one of the workers comes up and remarks how cute the kids are and then asks how old they are. We have a brief, and unmemorable conversation and she leaves. As a disclaimer, this girl wasn't quite all there. She was very friendly, but just not all home, if you know what I mean....

Anyway, a few minutes later, she comes back to our booth and asks how much the kids are eating and tells them that if they keep eating, they can have some custard. (OK, I'm not going to rant on and on about how WRONG it is to promise kids ice cream without asking the parents first, but believe me, I was thinking it!!). I smile, tell her thanks and she leaves. Yet again, about 2 or 3 minutes later she shows up again... She looks at how much the kids are eating and tells them that if they eat two more bites, they can have some custard. Normally, I'd be HOT about this, but all of a sudden, Katherine blurts out, "Mommy, why is she speaking Spanish to you? Doesn't she know that we can speak English???" I've got to tell ya, one part of me wanted to crawl under the table, the other part of me was having a hard time containing my laughter! I gave Katherine "the look" and told her that we'll talk about it later. She then says even louder, "Why can't we talk about it now? Why is she speaking Spanish, Mommy?" All I could do was to look at Matt and plead with her to be quiet. Only with the promise that'd we discuss it later, would she drop it. Oh. My. Heavens.... I wanted to die! And no, she wasn't speaking Spanish... Her English was poor, her words were slurred together, but in no way did it resemble Spanish for cryin' out loud. Ay-yi-yi!!

This morning I took the kids to Adventureland for which will probably be our last time this season. It was such a gorgeous day, and evidently pretty much the rest of Des Moines thought so too, because, MAN was it busy!! But it was nice to get out, walk around, and enjoy the weather. We made it on a few rides, watched the magic show, and had lunch. It was such a nice day!

When the kids got up from their naps, I decided that we'd do a picnic at the park for dinner. Danyel, her mom and the kids came with us, and we had a great time.

Here's some pictures --


Katherine LOVES hanging from bars and here she is showing off her skills!!



Katherine and Walker hangin' together. My little determined girl didn't want to be the first to drop, but I'm pretty sure Walker beat her!

We went to Greenbelt Park. It's such a cute little park.... cut into the trees and surrounded by bike paths. If you walk a little way down one of the paths there are a couple of bridges that over look a mid-size stream. Here are the kids on the first bridge. The bugs were horrible, so we didn't make it down to the second bridge. We'll have to save that for next time!!

Here are the 4 kids -- Caleb, Ryan, Katherine and Walker.

Looking forward to Matt's EARLY return tomorrow!!