The ice cream truck and yet another picnic

As soon as the boys arrived home from daycare on Friday, Jackson came rushing into the house as if he were on fire. Come to find out, the ice cream truck was on its way down the street. He was so excited to see such a thing. I guess they see it at daycare on occasion, but I don't think he remembers that it has been around our neighborhood before. Since it was Friday and they were relatively good for the week, we allowed them to get something from the beloved ice cream truck. They chose none other than the $2.25 Sponge Bob treat. Are you kidding me? Why were we splurging again? Are they going to expect another indulgence when they hear that annoying song that blare through the neighborhood again? What was I thinking getting this treat at the beginning of summer? For crying out loud, it's not even summer yet! Ugh, what have I started?

Regardless, it made for some cute photos:

Kyle went to a bachelor party this past Saturday for a wedding that he is standing up in this coming weekend. The original plan was to take a bike ride and have a picnic at a neighboring subdivision around lunch on Saturday. Since it was raining, the picnic was postponed for what I thought was another weekend. Not wanting to make the situation more stressful for myself, I caved to the tenth request/whine to go for our picnic. So, the boys and I loaded up all the necessary goods and took 0ff around 500pm, just before Kyle headed out for the party. We rode for what seemed like an eternity (in all about a 3 mile journey) and ended up at the shelter house. This entire experience was one that I never expected to turn out so frustrating. The shelter house was the unfortunate victim in a recent paintball fight. So, out in the grass we went to munch on our food. Too bad we didn't have a blanket. Once we finished eating we headed back to the playground in our neighborhood, since the one we planned to visit was too overcrowded for my liking. Just as we started on the path back, I noticed the honeysuckle bushes that lined the path. I instantly had flashbacks of my childhood when we used to taste the nectar from them. We stopped so I could share this memory with Jackson. They weren't quite bloomed enough to get the full effect, but it was nice to share this with him. We continued our ride back to the park and stopped to play for some time. Back on course, we went around to see if the fountain was on (it wasn't). As we neared our house, I looked up to see my car in the driveway. Instantly I remembered that I didn't have a key or a garage door opener with us. It was 700pm. What the hell was I thinking? Bedtime was approaching quickly. I was left there with two over-tired boys and no way into the house. We checked...the car was locked, the doors were locked. I called Kyle to inform him of our unfortunate luck and tried to think of how I was going to keep them pacified for the next 45 minutes knowing they were getting more tired by the minute. I don't know why, but I decided to check the windows. I knew that if by chance one were unlocked, I could get the screen off, shimmy up the window and toss a kid inside to remedy the situation, right? I kept trying to remember how the locks went on the window in order to open them...to the left or to the right? Lo and behold, one of the windows was unlocked. I can't recall the last time we opened this particular window, but at that point I couldn't have cared less. I tried to get the screen out, but failed. I was pissed that I had my nails done that morning and had them trimmed down. After the four-hundredth time of "How are we going to get in Mommy" I hear Jackson say, "I can bust out the window Mom." Yeah, sure Buddy. As if busting out the window hadn't crossed my mind. After convincing him that breaking the window would most likely hurt us to the point we'd have to go the hospital, he agreed that wasn't the best method. We went over to a neighbors house and asked to borrow a flat screwdriver to break into our own house. Thanks to Joe and Toby, we were able to get Jackson in the window. Mind you, he was instructed to go straight to the garage door and open it. On his way, he found a pack of sidewalk chalk and decided to play with it for about 5 seconds before I lost it. What a little shit! I put the window back together and we continued on our evening. Oh, and a quick call to Kyle to abort mission...we were in. To all out there: we have checked all of our windows and they are locked. I don't think I'll ever leave again without a way in. At least I hope not! Here are a couple of shots from the picnic.

until next time...lc