Casting spells...

Yesterday the girls and I set our sights on visiting a movie theater with friends. We planned to see the Dr. Suess movie, The Lorax. We recently checked out the book from the library and proceeded to read it about 25 times that first day. They love the story and couldn't wait for the movie. But, much to our shock and surprise, my friend and I discovered that the film actually contains PG language, including a cuss word or two. We decided to make the difficult parenting decision to forgo the movie and we broke the bad news to the girls. We instead made plans to visit another favorite destination, the inflatable bounce house place. This isn't the business' official name but it is what we call it. There was sadness over not seeing the movie but it was quickly replaced by the excitement of bouncing and giggling their day away. Unfortunately however we found that the day before our arrival was it's last day of operation and the bounce house was closed indefinitely. 

After breaking more sad news to my enthusiastic girls, you can imagine what happened next. Tears, sobs and gasps could be heard for the next 15 minutes as my friend and I scrambled to think up yet another alternative activity. In a quick decision, my friend and I drove our girls to a nearby park. I found expired sunscreen hiding beneath the back seat and we sweated it out with forced smiles on our faces until Kate wiped out, got an injury the size of a pin prick on her bony knee and laid in the wood chips wailing as if a tree had fallen and trapped her to the ground.

So we had our third failed attempt at creating fun. Desperation led us to wrack our brains for something out of the ordinary and we decided to paint pottery. CJ in a pottery store is like an elephant in a glass figurine museum. But somehow it all worked out. The girls patiently sat still in chairs painting a sculpture of their choice while my friend and I collapsed into our own chairs, exhaling deeply at the joy of finding something that wouldn't lead to bad news and tears.

Today we have absolutely nothing planned. And I kind of like it that way. 


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