Mom's morning out

Soooooo...a few weeks ago, The Lord put it on my heart to reach out to the other soccer moms from Zachary's team. I planned a coffee outing at a cafe that 'just happened' to be near our house; close enough for me to walk or ride my bike to. I think .3 miles away. Andes Cafe. And today was that day. First of all, it must be said that Art was great and encouraged this, and was happy to stay with the 3 boys by himself on a Sunday, which was usu reserved for family time. I was able to talk a bit about our church, since it meets at 4pm, which gives me the time available in the morning to meet with them. After a slow start (needing to fix my handlebars etc), I made it just as the first mom showed up. Only 3 of us came, but hey, it's a start. It MUST be mentioned that the guy behind the counter was like a caricature of a high school surfer/pot head. I had a hard time looking away from his gigantic frizzy fro (this was a white guy btw). I could have stayed there just checking him out (in a scientific way) for quite some time. The other two moms were also moms of boys, one of 2 boys, and one of 3 boys. It was fun to talk to the mom of the 3 boys, bc her youngest plays on Z's team, so it's our life in 5 years. It was great conversation, and we finally had to break it up at noon, a full 2 hours after chatting. They all agreed it was and enjoyable time and that moms really need this break (yet they both work full-time, both with phDs) and we should do it again. So I'll plan one for May. However, the 'real' reason for this post was to show you what happened while I was away! Sigh. I had forgotten all about fort building...I guess it has been many months since I have left the kids with Art while they were awake. Need to remedy that, because they ALL 4 had a great time.

Of course the kitchen did not get cleaned up.  It was still a disaster after this morning's breakfast.  I never expect it to get cleaned when I am gone, but I always have hopes that I will not come home to this!

Art had even fed the boys lunch - cereal, mac n cheese, and other odd bits.  I was summoned to come find the boys.  Uh oh.  I headed towards their room and was surprised by this:

Art had created, with the help of the boys (Wyatt's idea btw) a massive fort in their room, using the couch pillows, Yannick's mattress, Buster, the covers from their bed, and the pillows and covers from our bed. It was a maze underneath, and it took me a bit to find them. Later after it was cleaned up, the boys told me that Art had taken pictures of them hiding, and I was to look at the pics to see if I could find them hiding. It was like "Where's Goldbug" challenge. And it was tough...some of the pics I had to blow up to see. AND, at dinner, it was casually mentioned that Art had also let them jump OFF OF ZACHARY'S TOP BUNK onto the mess of pillows. WHAT?!? Glad they have a dad who will do that stuff with them, bc no way would mom! Art mentioned later, after the kids were in bed that it was really nice to get some time with the boys when he wasn't just waking up, or tired from the end of the day...a time of day when he had energy etc. DONE, I will make sure I leave more often!