continued . . .

Today.

Not everything on our list was accomplished.

Tears were shed when someone’s head was sat upon and when someone’s neck was poked too hard by a plastic dragon and when someone felt sad that someone’s sister’s neck was injured by someone’s prized dragon and when bedtime arrived earlier than it seemed it should have.

But, mostly, it was a fun-filled day with adventure and chaos, laughing and making memories.

(And isn’t mostly just about as good as any of us can hope for?  Particularly when you are talking about eight kids and two adults.)

This morning we took in a Dino Trax show over at camp.

This afternoon we let those Hendersonville streets enjoy the tread of our sandals.

We discovered a free mineral and lapidary museum on some sub-floor of a street front store.

(Ask me if I knew what “lapidary” meant before today.)

Some rather pleasantly rowdy older people were enthusiastically cracking open geodes and sharing their vast mineral knowledge.  The kids adored it – sighing and ohhing and ahhing over all the shiny purple rocks and the huge ostrich egg.  They were a right responsive audience.

We spent a lot of time rocking out with toys in a toy store where we purchased nothing.

(Probably not Dancing Bears most lucrative customers of the day, but they didn’t seem to mind at all.)

Piper wore these socks with her Keens.

And her princess dress.

With a huge brown-with-pink-polka-dots bow in her hair.

Beth might have used the word “hilarious” when she saw her.

I call it adorable.

And don’t worry guys.

Eagle came with us.

(Eagle always comes with us.)

The kids were like kids in a candy store when they were . . . uh . . . kids in a candy store.

They spent hours choosing between Tootsie Rolls and Nerds, candy necklace or gummy bears.

(Hours?  You ask.  Well.  We all know the truth here.  It was not actual hours.  But if you have ever waited on a kid in a candy store to choose between red roll ups or green roll ups, then you know the feeling.  Hours.)

Beth enjoyed an old-fashioned root beer.

What makes it old-fashioned?

Why, the glass bottle of course.

And the old-fashioned way it tasted.

All old-fashioned.

After our candy purchases were completed, the kids jumped around a little on the downtown street.

It was pretty cute.

And  then we went home.

We tried to do nothing.

But doing nothing wasn’t what anyone (except Beth and I) wanted to do.

So we did something else.

We made cookies.

Long, involved, roll out the dough over and over, cut with a cookie cutter kind of cookies.

So today was good.

(Oh – yeah.  We served the spaghetti sauce for dinner tonight.  Over noodles of course.  We had to add a little cornstarch because it was pretty thin.  And some extra basil and garlic for a bit more kick.  But it tasted good.  Not amazing – but good.  And it tasted like power.  Or ingenuity.  Or pioneer-ish.  Or just old-fashioned.)

And now I am tired.

And tomorrow – well, tomorrow is loaded with potential – right?

Like every tomorrow.