Such a mean mommy, as always

So, since this was mortgage week for us, it means money is tight until next Friday. We don't do unnecessary shopping or any extras for the week. The meal plan is fixed and we can't deviate from it. The kids yesterday were bugging me for toys and ice cream while we were on a looking mission at a couple stores and no matter how many times we (James and I) said no, they kept asking.

Finally when we were at Target looking for a new bike for me (don't ask, I do have a bike, its just a long story) I told James I had an idea for the evening. Our town was having a local festival and I figured we could walk over, let the kids do a few rides and grab dessert like a cookie or ice cream. He thought it was good so we told the kids that if their behavior was good throught the rest of the shopping trip and dinner, they would get a surprise. If not, no surprise.

Of course this resulted in MANY questions what the surprise was, mostly from Brianna. Jimmy was excited, but didn't ask. I finally after 10 minutes of her questioning told her that if she brought it up one more time, we would not go. So she kept quiet while we ate dinner and relaxed for a while.

When we finally decided to go, we told Bri she had to pull her hair back and they needed to wear gym shoes. They both started with the, we know where we're going. I told them we were talking a family walk and that was the surprise. Oh boy, did Brianna complain. Which is nothing new around here. So we began the walk to the festival, not telling her that was where we were going.

We got to the tracks and turned to head to the festival. They both thought they had figured it out. We didn't say it was or wasn't surprise. Bri kept saying, I smell barbeque, I smell cotton candy. I said I thought it was a house fire. We saw young squirrels, butterflies and a dead robin.

We walked to where we needed to cross the commuter train tracks to get to the festival. They asked, can we go for a few minutes, please? James and I said ok. And they each rode three rides and had ice cream. It was hot and crowded and I remember why I'm not fond of large crowds of people. But I think the kids had fun and even thought I spent almost all my spending money for the week on the evening, I think it was overall good.

Althought we never have nice weather for this fest. It needs to be cooler. Or in the fall like it used to be.