Baby Birthday Books

Today was definitely a test of patience...
We woke up got ready and the girls wanted to read books before we left for the store. So we read a few books! And then I went to go start the car to move it out of the way for the van to barrel through the driveway. And the car wouldn't even turn over. I really did try my best, but ended up getting Paul up, he got it revin with only two tries! So he gets out and I ask him, "so whats your trick?" "The ignition's broken!" Well I certainly don't feel incompetent about not getting the car started knowing that.
So Paul went back and layed down while the children were in the kitchen and I moved the car. I ran across the street and started up the van, left it running and came inside to get the kids. Lo and Behold I came in the front door only to find my children covered in RED!
"Mom, Mom! Abbi put paint all over!" Alona lets me know when things happen. Kacen's head was covered in red paint meant for decorating faces for Halloween , Alona and Abbi's clothes were caked. I picked up Kacen and took him to the bathroom sink. Rubbed him down with baby shampoo and ran the tepid water. Tipping his head back I scrubbed and rinsed his head until the shampoo ran all out of his hair and then added two more layers of shampoo one at a time until the water from off his head ran clear and was no longer red or pink. Even though it ran clear, his head was RED!
We get to the store, what do you know child #2 has wet pants, no I don't have a change of clothes, silly me. The cart strolled past the bakery, "Mom, I want a FREE cookie." "We are having these free samples of apple pie",I tell them. "This is gross", "I don't like it", "Yuck!", simultaneous reactions from two of my children that vocalize quite well. So I find a garbage can located in the bakery and they proceed to spit out the partially chewed pie. We keep walking, " I want a donut! Just one donut!" They proceed with the I wants throughout the store(of course), they don't want to be in the cart any longer and so they are informed of where they can safely be while mom is pushing the cart and moms requests aren't what they want, so they find other places to be, and feet get ran over. And children go running down the aisles, both children take off their shoes. Child #1 throws her shoes into the cart, child #1 was placed down on the aisle floor and informed that she could continue to shop with us when she decided to put her shoes back on. And what do you know this works! "I have to go potty" Child #2 tells me and so we go and she goes!
We get to thecheckout and realize that hey, we still need to get a new toothbrush. Down we go, to the dental hygiene aisle. The toothbrush that she could have which was age appropriate for was pointed out and she was ecstatic. Of course the other child Needed a toothbrush too, she grabs one and hides it behind her back. We get to 20 items or less checkout, and child #2 has these toothbrushes in hand and animal crackers in the other, neither of which we are getting! So tantrums flare! Everything gets rang up and the items that we are not getting are given to the cashier.
I check my planner, I check my bag, I check my pockets, No debit card. The only money that I have is Kacen's birthday money from Grandma's that we are going to get books with. I tell the lady I don't have my card and calmly walk away, while child #1 is screaming that we didn't get her toothbrush. The cashier seemed more distraught about having to deal with twenty items left at her checkout than I was about going through the time at the store and leaving everything that I worked so hard to get, and having to come back later and shop for it again.
It is now 90 minutes later and twenty items less than we were supposed to be going home with . Much effort, much effort for what...Mom borrowing some of Kacen's book money to get nuggets at McDonald's. We get a #9, it saves money, it saves sanity, so I thought. No toys to debate over with kids meals. Just one package of nuggets and one thing of fries that we can split up evenly. And then it begins, "I want the bee toy." "I want chocolate milk, I don't want this drink." A mother cannot be perfect. A mother cannot make her children happy all of the time, but she can try.
I put the root beer in the cart that I put for me to drink in one of the girls cups and noticed 75% off Halloween candy at the entrance to the store. We got gobs of pretzels for fifty cents and Butterfingers for 50 cents! And Our Root Beer spilled over at the nice cashier's checkout and she willingly and kindly cleaned it up.
We then were on to our last stop! Barnes And Noble! I changed Kacen in the car before we went in and what luck, he pees on his pants! So here I am taking a half naked child in to a store. And there with Child #2 in her peed in pants, needed to go potty, yeah! We then went to look at the children's books! Kacen found some he liked and also some that were in piles that he pulled down, child #2 found quite a few to look at and left spread all over the floor.

So Here is what we made away with...