August 18

We are definitely in a school-day groove. Daisy had preschool today, and I managed to have everyone up and ready in time to walk Daisy to preschool after we got Caleb off the bus. Her school recently changed buildings, and now it's only 1 mile from our house, instead of 1.5 miles. Daisy walked the whole way, and when we arrived at school I told her that she had walked a whole mile. She was shocked. "What? I didn't even notice it was that far!" I told her that time flies when you're having fun.

The marching band was practicing, so we stopped to watch. Since it's so early in the school year, they were just marching to the metronome and not actually playing. Daisy was very confused. 

Then on to school, where I dropped off my girl, as well as two cicadas and a cicada shell for her classmates to inspect. She was very happy.

When I picked her up three hours later, she seemed equally happy. However, as soon as I got her to the van she exploded in tantrums. I'm chalking it up to a mixture of hungry and tired, but it was a really impressive tantrum. Luckily, raspberries, gluten-free PBJs, and a long nap can fix most things.

It was a good thing she napped, because we had a big evening planned.

Chris and I have never been the type of people who can pass up "free".

So when he got a call last week from an attorney he works with, offering him some tickets to the baseball game, he called me immediately. After much discussion, we accepted the tickets.

Even though the game didn't start until 7:15.

Even though it was a school night.

Even though it was regular seats and not our favorite bleacher seats.

Even though we have a busy week planned.

We decided we would make it work. And then the thunderstorms rolled in. But it seemed like the worst had passed by 4:30, so our plans remained in motion.

Except that Chris ended up staying late at work to discuss a project with his boss.

And it kept raining.

But we soldiered on. I grilled hot dogs at home and packed dinner for everyone, and when Chris finally got home we all loaded into the van and headed for the stadium. Now that we have four kids, we are willing to pay for parking, so we shelled out $20 to pay in the closest lot. Free tickets = $20 parking isn't so painful. I wrapped Eli on my back, Chris popped Lily in the Ergo on his back, and we found our seats. (there may have been a quick detour for a Chicago-style hot dog for me. I feel like I earned it.) Once we were near our seats, we found a table and ate dinner. After everyone was done, we finally headed toward our seats, only to discover... there was a rain delay. Ugh.

Waiting. Lily was screaming. She barely ate dinner, and all she wanted were the gluten-free Joe-Joes I brought. 

Caleb leaned back in his seat, stretched out his legs, closed his eyes, and munched on peanuts. He seemed really happy.

Lily did not understand peanuts. She watched Chris and the kids throw their shells on the ground, and when Chris gave her a peanut of her own, she immediately threw it on the ground. 

Oh well. She'll figure it out eventually.

Eli wore his awesome baseball shirt and enjoyed his time with Daddy.

Daisy was happy about her peanuts.

He was so interested in what was going on!

Unfortunately, right as the game was finally starting, Lily began screaming. It was embarrassing. Though the seats were mostly empty around us, she was standing right in front of the one occupied seat, screaming. I tried holding her, talking to her, meeting her needs... nothing doing. She wanted a Joe-Joe, and I was not about to bribe my child with food. Then I realized it was 7:45, which is right around the time she is normally snuggled up in bed, going to sleep. The girl was done. So even though the game had just begun, we packed up and left.

Basically, we paid $20 to picnic at Busch Stadium. 

Still, the big kids had a lot of fun, so it was worthwhile. Just definitely not how we imagined things would go!