Crazy Day

So today was supposed to be a quiet easy day, you know how those usually turn out! We started the day giving all four boys a haircut. This activity usually goes like this:
Mom: Today is haircut day!!
Random boy: NO, NO, NO I hate haircut day!

Then we go out to the front yard and get the clippers out. All four boys proceed to run up and down the street trying to avoid Mom and her crazy clippers. Summer haircuts are pretty easy because I just buzz their whole head. So I got each of the boys up on the stool to get their hair's cut and this was followed by their usual screams of how this hurts their hair, yes their hair, not their head. I am sure the neighbors love the 30 or so minutes of screaming that their face, nose, neck, etc itches and now they have hair in their mouth because they have been screaming so much. So that lovely task out of the way we headed over to the park. Since we are in our 16th day (or something like that) of 90 or above it was pretty miserable at the park. Slides too hot to go whee! on. Aidan wore his flip flops which he has yet to master, so they keep coming off and the ground is so hot it burns his little toes. All the boys end up on the bench with me in the little bit of shade I found. Not playing, just catching ants and seeing if they can make the ants fight with each other. So we quickly abandoned the park and headed up to Southland's to play in the dancing water. We had to stop at Wal-mart first to get sunscreen and lunch. You can imagine how fun this is with 5 kids. This is an activity I tend to avoid. Only one will sit in the shopping cart (the one who cannot walk) all others insist on walking, always promising not to touch anything and promising, yes they will stay with me. So we get through Wal-mart with all promises broken, just happy to be leaving. We arrive at the dancing water and try to find a decent bit of shade since the last two days have resulted in the baby getting a little red either on his arms or face. First bit of shade is a no go because it is on the grass that has been soggy and swampy all summer. Second bit is not shady enough and Logan still is in the sun. Third bit of shade is great for the 10 minutes we sat there before Preston's face collided with the back of Carter's head and resulted in Preston with a double bloody nose, Carter crying because his head hurt and Aidan running away from the blood and slipping on the cement landing on his back and crying too. We quickly packed up and made our exit to the bathroom to clean up. And so one of the boys (who will remain anonymous) could poop because he did not do it before we left, like he was told. We all cleaned up and relived ourselves and then headed back to the water. We got our ideal shady spot back, and one bright spot of the day, we got to share our shady spot with some long lost friends from Preston's preschool days. After an enjoyable, mishap free time in the water we headed home for some much needed R&R (for Mom). Well, we get home and the garage door opener (which has been slowly dying) decided to completely die and we cannot open the garage. Just go in the front door you say, I would love to except my keys were lost yesterday and have still yet to be found, so the only key I have is the key to the van. So we drive over to Grandma Rosie's to see if we can find a battery store since the garage door opener cannot have a regular battery, it has some crazy tiny 12V battery that cannot be purchased at Wal-mart. Of course Grandma is not home and because of the a for mentioned lost keys we are not able to get into her house either. So Mom decided to drive around and see if we can find a battery store in on of the many surrounding shopping centers. We drive all the way to Chambers and Alameda with not a battery store in sight. So I stop at the Checker Auto part store to see if by chance they carry the battery we need. Of course they do, I am grateful that I now have the battery I need, and just a little peeved at myself, because there is a Checker Auto Parts about two minutes away from my house. That's OK, I really needed to use up some more gas for the day:) Luckily the boys were awesome, and thought it was a great adventure to keep their eyes peeled for the elusive battery store. We all came home and crashed!! Yes, you can watch 2 movies. Yes, you can make popcorn and eat it in my room, just don't tell your Dad. So now this day is saved for posterity, for better or worse! I need a vacation!!