Chlorine hangovers

This was a busy weekend.

Saturday my church had a "Winter Flurry", which was a big carnival for the kids. I took the kids and we had fun. The babies didn't exactly like to play the games by the rules set out, but hey, they are 2. Matthew found Jim and Amy by the bowling game and stayed with them to "help" set the pins up and also throw balls at them.

Jacob didn't want to wander far from me and it was hard going from game to game without the other two monkeys getting into trouble. Grabbing at the prize boxes, getting in the way of the game and just other general mayhem.

But we survived and even had ice cream sundaes and John won mini-cupcakes, Jacob won Doritos and a Gatorade and Matthew won a matchbox car.

Then I took my niece and nephew Katie and Sam back to our house and picked up Scott along the way to go swimming at the YMCA. We got into the pool and the babies just wanted to stand at the edge or splash their hands and feet. Finally after a half hour John was the first to really want to start swimming and he used my arm as a floatation device. Then Matthew joined in. I was so lucky not to get kicked or punched anywhere. I took those two in to get showered. Brooke stayed back by Katie and Scott where she finally got into swimming.

Hilarity ensued getting all the kids showered and dressed. There was a family in the locker room with us with three kids (they were in the pool at the same time as us too). She finally asked at the end, "do you have four or five children?" I said "Six, but only four are mine." She said that she was so impressed at how I handled all the kids and everything. Which made me laugh. I told her it was my husbands first time swimming with all the kids and I don't know if he'd think it was so fun and easy.

But we do what we have to do as parents to give our kids the best start in life. They need to learn to swim just from a safety standpoint. But they also need to learn to get out and hold hands, listen to mom, and how to act in public. These are great childhood memories that I hope they will remember and appreciate. Or, since I blogged about it, they can read it down the road.

So then Scott took the triplets home because they had not had a nap and were tired. I took Jacob, Katie and Sam to Culvers to eat and then we headed back to the YMCA for "Family Night". They had inflatables set up and a bunch of other stuff. Sam and I played basketball, which he swears he beat me by two points. The game is formally contested and will be disputed this week.

THEN, we went home, set up cots in the living room and they watched the Transformers movie and fell asleep while I went to see Twilight with a couple of friends.

A few things I'd like to get off my chest.
The book is ALWAYS better than the movie. The movie is good but the book explored the characters more deeply, set up situations for later scenes.

I didn't like some of the special effects of movie. In the book, the vampires "shimmer" in sunlight. The "shimmer" stunk in the movie. There were some very important lines that were dropped between Edward and Bella that really solidified their relationship and defined who they were as characters.

And, I cannot believe that a movie costs $9.00. And the popcorn combos were all like, $10.00 to $15.00. So if I went with a date, the movie and concessions would have cost me $30-35.00. Wow. I can't believe that cinemas are still doing well in this economy.