Preschool, Family, and Baseball. This One's for You, Dad.

I am happy to report that we had a nice, relaxed morning after yesterday's madness.  I still had to wake the boys, but they had plenty of time to cuddle, eat a breakfast burrito, drink their milk, and get dressed.  We didn't have to stop for a single bus stop, and Turken strolled on into preschool without looking back.

We were in the clear.  Golden.  A perfect morning.  Without tears.  Everyone happy.

Until we walked away and Cuckoo started in with the, "Where's my classroom?"

"You aren't old enough to go to school yet."

"But I'm big.  I'm as big as Turken."

"You may be big, but you're not four.  You can go to school when you are four.  Cheer up!  You have a morning with me all to yourself!  We can cuddle whenever you want, since no one will be sitting on my lap.  I can carry you whenever you want, since I won't be holding anyone else's hands.  This will be great!"

And that is when he threw himself down on a seat of the van in a fit of despair.  Apparently all that alone time with Mom wasn't all that appealing.  He was so distraught that he wouldn't talk, wouldn't move.  When I picked him up to a standing position, he dead-weighted me and collapsed on the floor of the van.  (Where do children learn that fantastically effective move?  And at such a young age??)    In the end, since I didn't want to stand there for three hours (Honestly, I wasn't rushing him.  But after several minutes there was no indication that he was ever going to get into his car seat.) I picked him up and forced his flailing arms into the buckles. 

On the drive home he must have had a talk with Jesus, because he was a little angel once we got home.  And he finally saw the beauty of being an only child, for at least a little while.  He picked out six books for me to read, and he got to sit on my lap for each and every one.

Now, before another day goes by, I need to get some pictures up here on the blog or my dad will get annoyed.  I don't know if you know this, but the blog is for him.  He's a fan, and he thinks he is going to be able to rally my merry band of 14 followers to help get me published.  He and most of my "original" family was here on Saturday to celebrate September birthdays, and he knows I took pictures.  He is probably getting anxious that I haven't put them up yet.

And while I'm throwing this long list of photos at you, I might as well add on the ones from Monday.  We took the kids to Cincinnati for a Reds game.  So, if you like to see family photos of a family you've never met, you've come to the right place.  If not, hopefully you'll come back tomorrow.

The boys (and my brother) were hoping for a Mud Bowl, but there wasn't quite enough rain on Saturday.  They settled for football in some mist and wet grass.  Each of my siblings have one son.  The nephews love getting together with my crazy bunch of boys!

A niece riding around the yard.

The birthday boys.  We decided to forgo cakes this year and have build-your-own brownie sundaes instead.

When four of my family members gather, there will be some Euchre.

A couple of nieces ditched the finger-paint idea and went full on body-painting.

A niece who wore that tiara all day long, and had to tell everyone it was real.  Buttercup wore it in a wedding, so it must be!

Some board games with all of the kids and some grandparents.

There were several rounds of "Who has the best magic trick?"  My mom was baffled by every one.

A nephew and Giant got really cool airplanes for their birthday.

My sister-in-law sells Mary Kay and gave Buttercup a spa day.  She's showing off her new, gelled fingernails.

There will be no body-painting for this guy.

And now for Cincinnati:

Right next to the stadium is a gorgeous bridge over the Ohio River.  There is a sidewalk of sorts for people to actually walk across the bridge.

Hubby had bought the tickets Monday morning on StubHub, as it would save us $200 to do so.  He warned me that they were the nosebleed seats.

Once we got to the stadium, we started climbing stairs.  With each level, we kept saying things like, "Only the cool kids get to sit this high up."  And "The higher you are, the better the view of the entire field!" 

Yeah, we were high, but we weren't that high.  We totally didn't need those binoculars.

It took a few innings for the kids to notice that our section was the only one in this gigantic stadium that were benches.  All other sections had fold-down chairs.  We, of course, pointed out the awesome things about bleachers.  "You can totally sit in any position you want on a bleacher.  You can even lay down if you want!"  And "When the announcer tells everyone to make some noise, we'll be the only ones who can pound on the seats in front of us to make some real noise!"

There was only one real problem that we found with our seats. 

 

 

Throughout the game, we had no idea what the entire crowd of 22,000 people were laughing, cheering, or oohhing about.  At one point, the announcer did tell us that the "kissing cam" was going around.  A couple of the kids ran down about ten rows to see if Hubby and I needed to start smooching.

 

 

 

The seats really were fine, especially for only $5 per person.  They even had a great view with which we could distract Cuckoo the few times he got bored with the game.  All we had to do was say, "Hey, is that a boat on the river?"

 

There was only one major disappointment for the day.  Hubby took the kids down to get some snacks, and when they returned, this is what they brought with them.

Crunch 'n Munch???  This is a stadium named "The Great American Stadium" for crying out loud!  No self-respecting baseball fan would ever choose Crunch 'n Munch over Cracker Jacks.  Shoot, no self-respecting person with taste buds would choose it.  And they didn't even have the decency to put a tacky tattoo in the box.  Not cool, Cincinnati.  Not cool. 

Everyone enjoyed themselves, to be sure, but I have to say that Giant is the most fun child to take on a trip like this.  As with everything he does, he is all in.  He brought his birthday money to buy that hat you see on his head.  But the best part is when the music starts.  That boy knows how to bust a move, and he doesn't care who knows it.

Since it was Phoenix's actual birthday, he got to choose the restaurant for dinner.   He has been wanting to try Joe's Crab Shack forever and a day, so Monday was the day.  The boy loves some crab legs, and he doesn't care who knows it.

There you have it.  Our Labor Day weekend, minus the rainy Sunday I told you about a few days ago, in a few million photos.

Thanks for hangin' in there with me.

Have a lovely day!