My kids were perfect...for a moment...then there's me

As parents we have had to learn how to do everything with our kids in tow. We don't have any family around, and even though we have great friends around, we don't want to take too much advantage of their wonderful offerings to take our kiddos off our hands for awhile and most of the time by the time we would fork up the money to pay a babysitter, there's not much left for a date so we make do in whatever way can. So this tends to lead to us dragging them along for adult fun or leaving them to fend for themselves (this is sometimes when maybe Averi's "helping" leads to an Averi story). Most of my stories are those mishap stories that occur because of probably our distracted parenting or just my curious child's personality.

But today, as I dragged my children to the store for two hours (two hours in the store with a four year old), to three wineries, and out to dinner I couldn't help but to think how even though I was at first disappointed that I wouldn't be going to the store by myself after all, or that it'd be nice once in awhile do something like wineries and dinner without my kids in tow, I realized why when I do get those rare trips out without them it feels unusually quiet and kind of dull.

I wish I could have had a video camera and tape recorder for the conversations Averi and I had throughout our two hour store trip. The girl is just hilarious. I turned around as I was looking at underwear or something and found her like this. I think the picture says it all about why this trip involved way more laughing than mommy frustration.

For the afternoon, there are a bunch of wineries near our house and it was a gorgeous afternoon, so we decided to take a little afternoon trip around Carroll County and stop in at a few of them. Of course, Averi informed us that it was boring, but she and her sister just sat down at nearby tables, waving and greeting people as they came in. My little devils were little angels all afternoon, sitting and patiently waiting, while they smiled and won over all the people that they came across.

Then we all went to dinner, which let me tell you, taking two kids to a bar at 5:00 was a way better idea than the first time we ended up in a bar with a baby. Now, first before you start your horrified parent attacks let me clarify a few things. First the bar we took Averi to at one week old we went to to eat wings and we thought with it being a Sunday night it would be more like a restuarant than a bar, but it ended up being packed and loud, and I don't think either of us will ever forget that first parental horror of "what was I thinking".  Don't we all have those? I know for most it's not because you took your baby to a bar but for us this was probably our first experience with that parental horror. Today, though we stopped in at a place we didn't know that we thought said family restuarant on it but it pretty much had a bar with high top bar tables. Luckily though it was only 5 so we were able to grab one of the few lower tables in the stage/DJ area. There was already music playing-dancing kind of music-and because it was only us and the people at the bar, and we were at a table in the "stage/dancing" area we let the girls get up and dance. It was quite the memorable dinner date! Their little dance moves had not only us laughing and enjoying ourselves but the people in and at the bar. Again, I wish I would have had my video camera because the still pictures just don't capture the entertainment that it was.

                                             I love them :). They can always make me smile.

                                                          My beautiful babies.

                             Our cowgirls waiting to take the stage for the night's entertainment

               I really needed a video of Kenzi's dance. She was hilarious. She had like 5 moves with foot stomping and hand jives that she all mixed up. It really was quite the act.

                                                              Didn't get a very good pic of Ave's show.

It was such a simple but great day of enjoying each other's company. The girls made me laugh and smile and it was just some of those moments I hope to remember. I wasn't stressed all day and the girls didn't get on my nerves or feel like they were driving me crazy. It was just so nice to have a day like that again.

And when we got about 15 miles down the road back towards home I realized I left my debit card at the restuarant. Guess we can't all be perfect on the same day. But even the 30 minutes out of the way we had to go to get my card back didn't really seem like that big of an annoyance.

I'm sure my little monsters will be back to their usual mischief tomorrow but overall today reminded their  momma that they really are pretty good girls. We are very blessed to be the ones they call momma and daddy.