Happy Labor Day!

For several years, my Mom has been trying to get our family to go to a relative's Labor Day party in Northern Virginia.  Each year, we have all had other plans and couldn't make it work.  But, the party sounds like it is a lot of fun.  With many, many bushels of blue crabs, and other seafood, a lot of people having fun and lots of activities for kids.  

So, finally, we all make it work and we all go on our way.  My Mom and Dad were in one car.  My sister and her family in another car.  My older brother and his family in a car. And, of course, the five us in our car.  It was a two-hour drive and we did not want to be on I-95 on Labor Day, so my brother and us took back roads.  Curvy ones.  With lots of dips and hills.  Perfect for when you have to un-do your seatbelt and turn around to suction, or feed a little girl sitting in the back seat.  About a hundred times.  Ugh. It was so frustrating - exactly the OPPOSITE of a relaxing drive for the passenger (me).  I seriously thought I was going to hurl at one point. 

But, it was worth it for THIS party.  All I could think about was all that good food. Yummy blue crabs!!!  We could hardly wait!

As we got within a few minutes of arriving (after being in the car for TWO HOURS), I called my Mom, per her instructions.  I asked her what the bathroom situation was.  She said, "Well, there is a McDonald's and Burger King on the corner."  I said, "Huh?"  That's when she said through what I thought was the verge of crying, "I have bad news. There's no one here."  

Uh-oh.

The party was yesterday.  YESTERDAY!  

Nice.  

So, we all pulled in the McDonald's parking lot to try to accept this horrible news.  My sweet, loving, supportive, wonderful and very sad Mom was the last to get out of the car. Understandably so, of course.  As she felt VERY bad.  

Everyone was so hungry and disappointed, that we all ended up eating at freaking McDonald's of all places (my LEAST favorite fast food place of all time - unless it's breakfast, and then it isn't so bad).  We went from CRABS to McDonald's!  

Of course this McDonald's had a play area for kids.  Ew.  Somehow Cooper got ahead of me and ran into the room before me (some of his cousins were already sitting with food) and within seconds (literally) I looked at him and he was holding and eating a chicken nugget.  Hmmm.  I took the chicken nugget away from him and went to each cousin, asking if they gave him this chicken nugget.  Nope.  Not a one had nuggets.  

So, either he took it off the table from a family (unknown to us) who was sitting there or he found it on the floor.  

Nice.

So, in my Mom's despair (as she was surrounded by 15 people with very sad, unsatisfied looks on our faces as we ate McDonald's food) she called my younger brother (who couldn't join us on our fantastic road trip) to see if he could get a bushel of crabs in Richmond.  He could, so we all agreed to meet at my house for crabs, which made the day not a TOTAL loss.  

So, we all head out to get in our respective cars, when Harlie goes up the play thing and refuses to come down.  I am signing, "let's go, get in the car" and she just smiles at me all innocently from way up high.  

So, I sent Murphy up there to get her.  Silly me.  Of course that doesn't work.  Now I've got two kids up there that need to come down.  So, I had to go up there and get her.  It was not one of my best moments.  Those things just don't get enough air in there.  It smells.  Yuck.  

So, I sanitized all my kids (and myself, of course) and we piled in the car to head home.  

Here's Tom on the way back...

And the kids...

And Cooper singing...

And me...

And here's all of us at home, finally eating crabs.

We all agreed that Mom won't live this down for a very, very long time.  It will be added to the list of things that we give her a hard time for.  One day, I will have to write them down.  They are VERY, VERY funny.  And let's just say that this isn't the first time she's gotten the date of a party wrong - finding out too late, of course.  Funny stuff, especially when it's not you being made fun of.

So, a BIG day tomorrow!  THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!  I'm not sure who's more excited, the kids or the parents.

Murphy starts First Grade.  The last time we went to Busch Gardens I put my arm around his shoulders on a ride and he said, "Mommy, you don't have to hold me."  Sadness!  When did he get so grown up?

Harlie goes back to her PEDD class (Preschool Education for the Developmentally Delayed).  I am supposed to have her there at 9:30am for her Hearing Impaired instruction, but since we just added it to her IEP (on Thursday at Open House) transportation isn't set up for the new pick-up time.  Normally the bus comes at 10:30 to have her at school by 11am, which is when her PEDD class starts.  But, I'm thinking about letting her miss the HI instruction tomorrow to let her ride the school bus, since it's the first day and all.  I just hate to have her miss out on that excitement.

We'll see...

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!

Thanks,
Christy