It actually started last night. I couldn't find Samuel's swim suit for the Middle School Water Park Day. His new swim suit. The one I bought him 3 weeks ago. I searched his drawers, the clean laundry, the dirty laundry, his closet floor, laundry room floor and behind the dryer. It was gone. I did, however, find his last year's swim suit, so I put that out for him to wear. It was new last year. How much could he have possibly grown? At 6:45AM it was clear. He had grown. Samuel stood with a look of despair, his swim suit pulled up to his knees. "No problem," I said, "Put on one of Dad's. It has elastic, it has strings!" He hadn't grown that much.
At 7AM I left the kids, got in the car and drove to Wal-Mart. There were actually other people there! I bought three different swim suits in a couple of sizes and drove home. When I arrived, Perry and the kids were waiting in the driveway. Samuel chose a swimsuit that fit, slipped it on in the garage and off they went.
Today was not only middle school's Water Park Day, it was also class awards and class party day. I had 10 minutes to finish getting ready and load the car. When I arrived at Arielle's 8:15 awards ceremony, I asked her, "Did you brush your hair?" "No," she said. "Did you have breakfast?" "No." "Do you have a lunch?" "No." I pulled out a hairbrush from my overstuffed purse and fixed her hair. In the same purse, I found a slightly smashed Fiber One bar.
Arielle performed 1st grade Reader's Theater and got her awards. I got out my camera and realized I had forgotten the memory chips on the kitchen counter. I grabbed the video camera and used the still camera feature. I ran upstairs and caught the last 20 minutes of middle school awards. I had exactly one hour before the K4 party and scavenger hunt (of which I was in charge). I drove home to get the memory chip, dropped off Samuel's papers and drove back to school. As I unloaded 6 treasure boxes, fourteen sand pails, 2 baking pans and mini-corn dogs for 20, I realized that when I dropped off Samuel's papers, I had accidently also dropped off the scavenger hunt clues. I called my husband who was working at home. Could he pretty please bring my scavenger clues back to school? He obliged, of course.
At the K4 party, I surreptitiously filled a plate with food and brought a plate of pizza and fruit to the lunch room for Arielle. Anna's party started at noon. Math Awards were at 12:30. I went to the teacher's lounge and pre-heated the oven for the mini-corn dogs I was bringing to the 1st grade "Carnival" party. After the Brief Math Enrichment ceremony, I baked the corn dogs and brought them down to first grade. I stayed for twenty minutes and went to the third grade class awards. (They stagger the times purposefully, so a parent with more than one child can attend each event!) On the way up, I stopped back at the teacher's lounge and put the leftover corn dogs in the fridge. At 2:15 we headed back down to the first grade party. When school ended, Perry took the girls home and I stayed and waited for the middle school water bash bus. I finally arrived home at 4PM - exhausted. How do teachers do it?
After perusing the pantry, the fridge and the freezer for dinner inspiration, I decided that I had no problem serving - leftover corn dogs - for dinner. On paper plates, of course.