What kind of plan could encompass all of these shopping necessities? Why, heading all the way to the far side of Anchorage to Kohl's and Target of course. But! The brilliance wasn't that I chose a beautiful Saturday to make my kids sit in a car for part of the day (ha). Or that I was actually taking all five kids on this multiple-stop shopping excursion (snort). The true brilliance was to plan to drive during the little girls' nap time. The secondary brilliance was to work our way back to Sports Authority, Costco and Carrs, ending with my shopping for the last few groceries while the kids ate dinner at the little 'dining area' in Carrs.
The first part of the plan worked like a charm. We left home after lunch and Abigail drifted right off. Bethany (who had a rough night's sleep last night, as did I) slept too, but did a lot of head bobbing first. The second part worked okay...especially because the new Sports Authority had opened between Kohl's and Target. But (and you knew there had to be a but) we ended up spending a little too much time at the first two stores. I know. Big surprise.
I don't know how it happens. I actually set a time limit in my head...but any sort of time keeping just fades when I'm in either of those stores. It didn't help that I had such divergent interests all over Kohl's and had to wait for kids to try on clothing. It also didn't help that I had to go to customer service about a pair of pants Moriah really liked but that didn't have a tag and no other identifying numbers. Eventually I was helped by the right person who was willing to sell them to me for a fair price. Whoo hoo!
Anyway, the long day day ended up going longer at Sports Authority (but Moriah's nifty blue cleats were worth it) and I had to skip Costco (no lemon cookies for me, sniffle). I think it's nuts that they close early on Saturdays. We eventually did do the last part of my plan: dinner at Carrs. Except I ended up eating with the kids and not shopping without them and the babies wouldn't stay put in the high chairs that had broken seat belts (surprise!). So I found one of the cute car shopping carts (and waited several minutes for a new container of antiseptic wipes because I'm a bit of a freak and grossed out about how dirty shared plastic baby items are) and the little girls had a blast 'driving' all over the store. We did find you had to keep moving or Abigail would climb out (yes, yet another broken seat belt) and Bethany would attempt to unbuckle to follow her sister.
We got home after nine...Abigail and Samuel fell asleep on the way home. Abigail even graced us with her silly smile that she gives whenever she's falling asleep in the car and you try to keep her awake. If you call her name, she'll give this goofy smile with her eyes still closed. It's like she knows you want her to resist the pull to sleep but she's gotten to the point where she really can't. Or maybe doesn't care enough to resist. Either way it's an adorable little smile.
Overall, we had a good day and I packed enough diapers and snacks to keep babies happy. Ironically, it was the three older kids (esp. the oldest) who became the cranky ones. I actually think my day would have been a little less stressful if it had just been me and the babes. Huh.
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