In general, I am a pretty positive person. It just makes life a little more pleasant, and I think a glass half full attitude with some rose colored glasses helps me feel better about situations even when they aren’t the best.  BUT some of the harder jobs in my life (aka the tricky parts of motherhood) sometimes leave me a little less positive (which I am working on!). So while I initially wanted to start this post with some sort of “all the best made plans…” or “of course since we had a big day planned and…”, etc, I am instead just going to use it as reminder for you moms out there! 🙂 Anyone with really any experience with kids well knows that even the simplest activity or task somehow often becomes very laborious and time consuming with kids.  One of those tricky parts? Getting out the door in the morning.  It is obvious- instead of getting one adult out the door (me!), I have to get one adult and 2 small people who still struggle sometimes with all the tasks it takes to get out the door- let alone doing them independently! But before I was a mother, I think I underestimated just exactly how much effort those things that were so easy for just me would take!  The running dialogue would look something like this…

ok I’m finally ready, maybe the kids are done eating…ok sure I can get you your FOURTH bowl of cereal (do anyone else’s kids eat like six times a normal adult breakfast for breakfast?! No, just me?! :))…oh E2 try not to spill more milk….wait why are your hands in your milk?!…let’s wipe your face…no please use a clean napkin for that…E1 please put your dishes in the sink…oh SET them in the sink instead of throwing!….ok go potty and brush your teeth, your clothes are on your chair to put on after…E2 let’s get you cleaned up…please don’t touch everything on the way to the sink!…sure, you can go poo (sorry, real life here)…oh, you have to too? Ok, find the other toilet…everyone clean let’s get dressed…can we please put on socks instead of playing with toys, we will be late…no you cannot have a 5th bowl of cereal…go ahead and brush your teeth…no, you cannot use your sister’s toothpaste now that you have adult teeth…E2 can we just wear 1 hairbow instead of 5?…yes you may pick it out (in addition to everything else she wears)…what about matching socks…E1 going potty again?!…what about your socks…you still haven’t brushed your teeth?!…

YOU GET THE POINT. All this after my morning routine- and MAYBE 30 minutes later we are out the door. So on Monday, we did all this- and got in the car to head with 3 other mom friends (and our 9 combined kids!) to the children’s museum in a nearby town. We were super excited, and had been planning for weeks- while we are all at least part time home with our kids, there is so much running around involved with school aged children that we don’t’ all get to get together very often!

5 minutes into the car trip with one of those friends behind us, E1 has to go potty (for the 4th time since he woke up. ?!?!????).  I also realize I totally forgot we were mostly out of gas. So after some negotiating, we decide we can wait about 20 minutes for that stop, and our friend will go on to Starbucks to grab us non-negotiable coffee and we will meet there, and then do the last hour of the trip.  Potty trip (only one would go though so we knew another was coming!), gas, and meet for coffee- where our friend is having no luck getting her youngest to go either. Eventually we get back on the road (already 1 full hour after we started, even though we had only traveled 30 minutes) and as we are singing in the car about 45 minutes later almost to our destination, with our other 2 friends in cars quite a bit ahead of us after our extra stops, my phone beeps at me.

This destination may be closed today.

First of all, I didn’t know googlemaps could do that?! Second of all, it has been on for an hour- why is it just alerting me now?! And third…SERIOUSLY?!  So after quickly finding the number and calling…the museum was closed.  It isn’t open on off season Mondays. One friend was about 5 minuets away from the museum with her 2 kids, and the other just a bit behind her. All that…for that!

Now, of course we made the best of it, all turned around, and went to Sky Zone, which was super fun.  But only after an extra almost 2 hours in the car that NO one needed!

So lesson for the day? If you are going really anywhere with your kids that involves any extra driving at all (especially to another town that is twice the drive to the normal town you go to, which is already a good trot since you live in the country), call first and make sure they will be open! Out of the 4 of us moms, each one is quite a planner and pretty organized. Each one of us does lots of traveling and activities like this with our kids. But none of us thought that on a random Monday, they might be closed- and no one called! It is always worth it just in case!

You probably already knew this…it was a rookie mistake! But one we hopefully won’t make again!