Our Memorial Day Weekend

Friday

• I had intended to take Friday off work as my "flex day", but after 3 sick days in a row, decided it was better that I go in.
  
• After work, we all went to McDonalds for dinner and playtime. Really, there ought to be more McD’s with play places. Of the half dozen restaurants nearest us, none of them have one. We drive about 15 minutes away to Florissant.
  
• Stopped through Dairy Queen for ice cream on the way home. It was the beginning of a food-filled weekend.
  

Saturday

• Hubby leaves to go negotiate and buy a car at 8:30.
  
• Kids and I go to the library around 10 to pick out books. I wish there were more Saturday morning story hours at the library. We’d show. Those weekday morning times are really annoying for working parents, and our local branch’s (once a month) evening story time lasts about 5 minutes. Not the same at all. Nevertheless, we left with around a dozen books, Leap Pad kits, books on CD (Char loves these in the car), and one exhausted Mommy. Trystan thinks the library is a great place to run.
  
• Kids and I make lunch around noon. Hubby is still negotiating and/or filling out paperwork.
  
• Hubby returns at 1. We all admire the shiny new car. The kids get excited and want to go for a drive. We just drive around town briefly. Trystan falls asleep.
  
• We decide to head to the St. Louis Renaissance Faire for the remainder of the afternoon. After packing everyone and stopping for sunscreen (I don’t know why we wouldn’t have any in the house), we arrive with about 2.5 hours left before close. A little short on time, but not too bad for the kids. Trystan loved the petting zoo. We catch only about 2 minutes of the last joust of the day (in time for the coup de gras, including a realistic looking blood squirt). We constantly explain to Charlotte that its all makebelieve, like a living story book, and that the guy on the ground is just pretending. I eat a funnel cake for the first (and last) time in over 10 years. Charlotte gets to pick out a (way too expensive) floral headpiece. Next year, I’m making her one before we go. We end the day dancing with the fairies at the front gate.
  We follow up with dinner at Bread Co, and the 30 minute drive home.
  

Sunday

• We skip church.
  
• Instead, we go out to breakfast (IHOP), because we have no food in the house. Not even milk.
  
• Then we go grocery shopping.
  
• We spent some time cleaning the house and doing laundry, and then convincing everyone to take a nap. Trystan required a short ride in the (new) car.
  
• We made hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill for dinner, and ate outside on the deck. We were just finishing our last bites when it started to sprinkle.
  
• We wrapped the evening with a movie—Barbie as Repunzel. It was quite cute. I hadn’t known what to expect from the Barbie movies until we checked one out from the library a year or so ago. They are very girl-power oriented, with good messages for little girls. This one centered on encouraging creativity and imagination, plus the importance of talking out problems instead of resorting to violence (two warring kingdoms...there were more male characters in this one than most of them).
  

Monday

• Rain. The neighborhood pool was open, but we weren’t going.
  
• We went to the St. Louis Science Center instead. It was the first time we’ve taken the kids there (except for one trip with my mom & baby sister when Charlotte was a couple of months old). They had a great time, and there were plenty of things to learn and climb (have we mentioned that Trystan’s a very physical kid ). We were exceedingly nice and bought them a Build-a-bear dinosaur to share.
  
• Lunch at Il Vicino’s in Clayton. Trystan ate an entire small pizza by himself. Charlotte requested and ate a salad, with only a tiny slice of pizza. And she prefers regular olive oil to flavored, for dipping bread. The kid has a very grown-up palate.
  Then we drove to IL to celebrate Hubby’s father’s birthday. Playtime with the cousins, dinner, cake & ice cream. Lots of tickles and giggles. Too bad it was pouring outside, or the kids could have tried out their cousins’ new swing set. Next time I’m sure.
  
• They both fell asleep in the car on the way home. We didn’t last long either.