Brayden’s school held it’s annual fifth grader’s carnival on Friday night. The fifth graders raise money for, actually I’m not quite sure what, and all the kids in the school run around like crazies playing games for tickets that cost $.20 each in order to win some of the cheapest prizes in America. But no matter. . . that’s enough to make any four and six year old excited for the next 364 days until the next one. I could’ve gotten away with only spending $4 the entire hour we were there, but I desperately wanted Brayden to win in the Cake Walk, so I bought four special tickets for a dollar each and let him try three times to win me himself a choice of about a hundred different delicious looking cakes that people made or bought. Talk about a money maker. The line for the cake walk was steadily long, and twelve suckers hopeful children paid a dollar each round so that they could try to win a cake for their parents themselves. At one round every three minutes, for an hour and a half, well I’d say that’s a pretty good profit–especially when the cakes were all donated. So, here’s your helpful tip if you are ever in a situation where you need to raise some quick money and have a lot of children attending en event. Have a cake walk. To be honest, I completely remember back to when I was in Elementary School, and we had a similar event each year. They did have a cake walk as well, and we won it one year! I also remember that same year when we woke up the next morning to part of the cake missing, and realized that my brother woke up in the middle of the night and ate some of the cake. True story. Anyways. . . so Brayden didn’t win a cake in his three turns, but as you recall, I bought four special  one dollar tickets, so he talked me into letting him get a face painting by one of the talented fifth grade artists. But instead of a face painting, he asked for a hand painting, and in about fifteen minutes flat, that cute little yoda designed by a sweet ten year old was smudged all over his hand. Best dollar I ever spent. Not. I should’ve made him try the cake walk one last time instead.

Our Saturday was fun too. My friend Christy decided that she would throw a little swimming party at her place of employment. She got together a few friends with kids, and we headed to her work to swim. James laughed all the way there and said that his expectations of how the morning was going to go was not very high. He was picturing like an old boy’s and girl’s club pool with yellowed tiles and a dank smell. Followed by mildew growing all over and a dungeony sort of feel.  Okay, I may have exaggerated that a bit. But that’s the feel he was going for. Turns out, it was quite the opposite. Clean and new, and full of bright colors and modern artwork. So for two hours, we said Sayonara to twenty degree weather and hung out in our swimsuits splashing in the water. Brayden had a blast. If Carter had some body fat, he would’ve had more of a blast. He had spurts of blasts, and then spurts of shivering. Then took a hot shower, got dressed, ate a snack and sat on a chair for twenty minutes until he warmed up. And then we repeated the whole thing. Sawyer was having the time of his life for about twenty minutes as well, but again. . . same problem with the body fat. And we ended up taking him out because he was purple and shivering. But seriously, he splashed around like it was the best thing he’s ever done. And I felt like I was wrestling him because he was trying so desperately to get out of my deathly grip.

Our big accomplishment for this weekend was laundry. About twelves loads of it. I hate laundry. And pretty much all house work for that matter. But there’s something about the laundry that just gets me down to my bare bones. And those darn socks! Why are they always the last thing to get taken care of? And socks without a partner are all over my house! I find them everywhere. Here’s my problem–so, today we’re all caught up. Everyone’s hampers are empty. Clothes are all put away. So I take like three days off saying, oh wow, ALL the clothes are clean! And then by Wednesday everybody’s hampers are completely full again. So begins the endless chore of the next twelve loads. Wash them, dry them, dump them in a pile in the middle of the family room so that by the end of the week, there is a massive mess. I bet I’m not the only one with that problem, am I?