Right in the middle of our freeze, Joey left us to go hunting. It was actually a planned thing. Blaine was supposed to go, too, but it was
so cold, and I was afraid it would ruin him for life! I was afraid he would never go back because all he could think about was how cold it was. He was totally ok with it, too. We told him that he could go, but that it would be REALLY cold, and we thought he shouldn't go. He said he was going to stay home, and he never gave it a second thought.
Since it was a "special" weekend, I told the kids we would do something fun on Saturday while their dad was gone. Shock of shocks, they wanted to go skating. I agreed, figuring I could snuggle up in a chair with a book and some hot chocolate. But when we went by the skating rink, it was PACKED. Last time it was packed, they both
and maybe me too ended up crying because they got hit or knocked over or somebody ran into them. I did
not want to do that again. I told them if they would skip it, they could pick a place for lunch, have an appetizer and desert, and they could each pick a store to go to and buy something little.
(Did I take a camera? No. You'll just have to take what I came up with.)
They picked
They chose calamari for an appetizer, which Kylee proceeded to choke on. I mean, really choke on, not that I believed her at first. I thought in true mother-of-the-year fashion that she was being a drama queen. Until she turned red. Then I was scared! It even scared the men in the booth next to us. I was pulling her out of the booth to do the Hiemlich when she got it out herself. The men behind us had even come over to help! Anyway...she survived, and was still hungry. For desert, Blaine and I split
February's featured raspberry tiramisu. Heavenly. And Kylee had
Italian Lemon Pie. She said, and I quote, it was "lemon goodness served on a plate."
Then we headed to stores of their choices. Blaine chose
. That's right. My six-year old is definitely MY child. Every time I turn around, this
is how I find him. I LOVE it! Pops and Dawn got him the first three books of Hank the Cowdog for Christmas, and he wanted the next one. We didn't find the fourth book, so he got a Phine@s and Ferb chapter book instead.
Since my girl
doesn't like to read, I decided to bribe her. I told her if she would actually READ a book, I would buy her a book and something at her store. To my delight, she found a book, and we all sat down at B&N
to read a bit. To my dismay, this lasted all of three minutes before she was up scouring out the art section for sketch books. She didn't buy a book.
So we headed to her
store of choice, where she bought this
precious sweater. SHe also had a gift card to their to add to what I had promised them.
It was an amazing day with my kiddos, and I love them both more than I knew possible. It's amazing to me what different things I have in common with each one of them, and I just get tingly thinking about it.
On the way home, I decided to head to my favorite store for my favorite drink
with my favorite kids to end a near perfect day!
Jack Russell Terriers. Precious. Tiny. Perfect. NOT what we need! We have three dogs, remember?!! I said, "Oh, I love them. So sweet! Let's go." Joey said, "Hey, come over here a minute and let me talk to you." I knew then. He said, "You know, Remington
sleeps with Kylee, and Chester is just too big to sleep with Blaine. But Blaine has always wanted a puppy to sleep with him. This has to be it." I said ok. 
he's number four. Pretty clever, aren't we? He's SO tiny,
but we already have big love for him.
And he's already fulfilling the 
