Busy Day in FreddyTown

Steve had a tournament in Fredricton this weekend. My choice is always to go with him and entertain the kids in a hotel or to stay home... but in Fredricton we have friends we were long over due to visit so it was a great chance to get away. We arrived late last night. Sadly AnnaWen fell asleep in the car so I *had* to stay back in the room with her instead of taking the other kids to the pool. I *had* to tuck her into bed, change into my pjs and crawl in next to her to read my book. Sucked ;). Except that when they came back to the room, they woke me up. Let's just say a queen bed is not big enough for two girlies and a Momma, regardless of how little those girlies seem to be. After twenty minutes or so I growled at Steve to go find a cot. He did, and it fit nicely between the two queen beds, but then there were tears over who had to sleep with me - well, not really, but the preferred bedmate is Daddy and whomever got stuck with me cried. Love being the Mom. Sigh.

This morning Steve was up and gone to the gym early. We got up more slowly and after I showered and dressed the kids (pj clad) and I went down to the continental breakfast. The same four kids who are lucky to finish their bowl of cereal at home put away more than a visiting football team would have. I guess there's something special about FruitLoops that come out of a canister with a twist dispenser and bagels that slide out of a toaster.

After breakfast we headed to the mall to get the last necessities for guinea pig care. Then we called up Krista and Frank and invited ourselves over. It was awesome to see the kids all together, and to see their kids again. Especially to hear Hanlin speaking English. Of course I knew he was, b/c AnnaWen does, but in my head he was frozen as a scared little boy. Today I saw him as a happy, bouncy, talkative kid. The kids played in the playroom, ran up and down the stairs and got along famously. Even though I assured Krista and Frank that my kids were NOT hungry, that they had eaten their weights in complimentary muffins, the Munsters proved me wrong by eating waffles with berries and whipped cream. We adults chatted in the kitchen about our trip and the "fallout" since... it was great to catch up.

From there we went up to MadHouse central - the Tarrants. They have three of their own kids but always seem to have an extra kid or two floating around. We arrived, then Baby Claire arrived with her parents, then cousins Sophie and Ava, then friends Hannah and Olivia... at one point we had 13 people ranging from 6 weeks to 12 years of age... and that doesn't count the husbands who rile the kids up. We fought over the baby and had a HUGE spaghetti dinner. Most excitingly, Jack finally picked up his guinea pigs, Bludger and Snitch who are nestled in their carrying cage beside his bed.

We left there and came back to the hotel to have a swim. No one drowned, but the shallow end was just deep enough that both PJ and Wen had scary moments where they couldn't touch and couldn't get back. Four kids in a pool is tough work, especially when it was too cold for me to really get in. Back up to the room for a warm-up bath, pjs, play time with the gps and a surprize room service picnic of chocolate icecream sundaes.

AnnaWen is out cold, in spite of the very loud struggle the rest are putting up to stay awake. Steve just got back from the gym and the six of us are spread across our room sized bed (two queens with the cot in between). It was a pretty good day!

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