Our day of events is done. It went relatively smoothly. A few minor hitches like getting stuck in traffic a couple times and getting a few minutes behind schedule. But no damage was done to any appointments, praise the Lord! It is not a nice feeling to be stuck on the Deerfoot(hwy) in 3:30 traffic, knowing you're supposed to BE at the preschool at that time to pick up your son and you have no cell phone to call them. Thankfully I made it in the nick of time where they weren't going to charge me for being late.I will have to get and download pictures of James in his lion costume for the Noah's Ark party. He was adorable!!!! I just wanted to stay in his preschool room and kiss his fat little face all two hours. :) And Grace was a princess for her photo session. She was sweet and well-behaved, posing so primly exactly as she was told. I had a MUCH harder time narrowing the pictures down with her; I wanted them all. I think I chose well, capturing her "princess act" nicely. I took the kids to a coffee shop that had a huge adjoining room full of play equipment....it looked like several daycares all in one room. They loved it! In my dream home, I will have a  room just like this.....with those big puzzle foam mats covering the entire floor, several Little Tykes playground/slides(some quite big!), tunnels, playhouses, kitchens w/ dishes, and....best of all....a whole corral of Little Tykes cars with a road to drive them on! There was an adjoining bathroom/change station, a little kitchenette(for moms who need to warm bottles), several Little Tykes picnic tables for the kids to eat at and little round patio tables for the moms. Our food was served through a diner window right into the room so we didn't have to leave our kids to get our food. I love this place! There is a fee for each small child to play, which, multiplied by three(Gabe was too big; he was sad), kind of added up, plus the food we bought. But today God gave me a wonderful blessing and enabled me to be able to treat them to this fun place. I would not make a regular habit of it. But it would be a fun place to take the little ones for a "Mommy date"! I try to take each of them on Mommy dates every so often, to spend individual time with them and let them know they are special. I love how the tiny ones get it into their heads that whatever we did on the first date is what we "do" on every other date after that. If you look at how the rest of their lives go....they want to wear their favorite outfit or pajamas every day for the rest of their lives, they want to read the same book repetitively, they watch the same movie over and over....why not go on the same Mommy date every time? I think it creates a special memory for them-though if they chose a new place I would totally be up for that as well; it's up to them. James thinks of his 'date' as going to Tim Hortons and sitting down and getting his own juice and a sprinkle donut and looking at hockey pictures on the walls, and that's what he wants to do every time. Gabe and I went to Starbucks and Chapters(his favorite bookstore) and saw a movie together. I think the girls would each like to go play at this coffee shop/playplace. Gracie practically moved herself  and her belongings into the little playhouse tonight. I had to bodily remove her from the premises when the place closed. :)
Well, I came downstairs to relax at the computer while the kiddos were getting to sleep. I think they've finally drifted off, minus James who has come down three times trying different tactics to stay up. Unfortunately I still have much to do this evening before I get to go to bed. So off I go to tackle, what else? the laundry! In the words of Tigger, "TTFN! Ta Ta For Now! Hoo hoo hoo hoo!"