Meeting Geoffrey

Some days we stay home all day (like Thursday) and other days we are out and about most of the day. This morning we left at 9:45 for the Little League Museum for their annual Kid's Day. They don't charge admission between 10-2 on that day, and many community organizations have displays set up within the museum at which they are giving away things or have something fun for the kids to do - such as getting their faces painted. The PBS station also is there and brings a character for a meet and greet. Today it was Curious George plus the local baseball team's mascot named Dugout. I did take pictures of the kids with Dugout and Curious George, but sadly I did something wrong (was using my iPhone) and the pictures were extremely blurry. So they were promptly deleted because I can't stand blurry pictures. The kids had a good time. At one place they time you running from home base to first base, and Ian was able to run 1 second faster than Nadia. Oliver was the slowest. Ian also did the best with another activity that involved a simulation of catching balls as a shortstop. Nadia asked to have her face painted like a panda bear. They didn't have any black paint so they used brown instead. Oliver had a different idea at first, but then after he saw Nadia's face he asked for the same. Ian passed on the face painting. After the Little League Museum we went to a consignment shop (bought a pair of shoes for Nadia for $2), Dunkin Donuts (used a gift card for our lunch), Aldi's (groceries), and Target (bought two turtlenecks for Nadia for less than $4 total thanks to a $10 off coupon).


Ian was most excited about our next stop - Toys R Us. They had a scavenger hunt you could do anytime between 12-2, and when you completed it you were given a free Star Wars poster and a Star Wars Lego minifigure. After we completed our hunt, Ian got his birthday crown and balloon, and they announced his upcoming birthday over the loudspeaker. He then used the $3 coupon from TRU and the $7 I gave him early (his birthday is 12/12) to buy a small Lego set. Then we dropped our van off at Sears for an oil change and tire rotation. While they were working on the van, I did a little shopping in Sears. I did manage to buy a Christmas gift for Oliver (Spiderman umbrella) without him realizing it. Oliver is at the stage where I would rather never ever take him in a mall. I had planned to stop in a couple of other stores but then decided that was more than my sanity could handle. We just waited in the automotive area until they finished the van. After that we drove across the parking lot back to Toys R Us because from 3:00-4:00 they were having a birthday party for kids with birthdays in November or December. We had never done this before. I remember choosing to pass on it in August for Oliver's birthday. An employee read a book to the kids, they colored, met Geoffrey, marched around the store behind Geoffrey, and then each of the birthday kids received a free 12 inch Geoffrey stuffed animal and a free hard back book.  We got home at 4:00 so we had been gone for almost six hours, and we were all very ready to be home. Paul got home from work about 30 minutes after we did. We hadn't seen him since Tuesday.