Is one I probably should master. But sometimes the best laid plans go wonky and I don't always take the time I should to do some research. And sometimes, like today, that bites me in the butt.
I found our passes for the Rosicrucian Museum over the weekend and thought it would be nice to go there again since they were still valid and why not take the nieces as well. Comparing calendars with Kendra saw that Today looked like the best day so it was arranged that we would just leave after Matt's guitar lesson, around 12:30p. That would get us there at 1:30p giving us a few hours to look at stuff, play a bit outside, and then I'd take them to dinner to avoid traffic before coming home.
Well, I was trying to get stuff done this morning so I didn't get lunches made. This led to us stopping at the bank and then Subway and Burger King to make sure everyone got what they wanted. And of course, this led to us getting to the museum around 2:30p instead. Oh, well, it still gave us 2-1/2hrs to look around inside which I figured would be plenty for this crew since my boys have been there before and would spend the entire time staring at the mummies anyway playing Monk and seeing if they could figure out the cause of death better than the experts.
Unfortunately, we get there to find the doors closed. Apparently they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. WTH?! Um, don't schools go there and stuff?! Yes, but they probably know how to go online and check out the hours and days of operation unlike me who decided to just do an impromptu thing, which is apparently frowned on.
Ok, so quick. We just drove an hour to get to San Jose and the thing we wanted to do was closed. Most museums and things of that kind will close at 5p so what is close that might have a chance of keeping 6 kids ranging in age from 5-16 amused. Ok, Happy Hollow was just renovated and there is the Tech Museum. I know HH better and how to get there and wouldn't have to deal with the downtown parking crapola. So HH it is. Check on my phone to make sure they are open and head over. I figure it's right up Nick's alley and Jon will probably like it too so I can get a family membership, get us all in, and maybe do another trip or two with some friends and the two younger ones over the year to make it worthwhile.
Nope. When we get there we find out that they no longer offer family memberships, it's a per person affair and the cost is just barely cheaper than going 3xs. Not only that but there is one admission price for 2-69yrs and it doesn't matter that we are getting there 2hrs before closing. It is still going to cost $84 for all 7 of us to get in. Oh, plus the $10 parking fee we already paid. I paid it and grumbled under my breath but put on a cheerful face for the kids and in we went.
Then we found out they don't do maps any more. You just get to stumble around and try to figure out how to get from place to place on your own and things have changed enough from when I was there last to make that lots of fun if, you know, we had more than 2hrs to spend there.
Next disappointment was the kids favorite Crooked House, which was featured on the website even, has been boarded up. About this time Matthew started complaining and got the "I know this is not what was promised and it's a poor substitute but it's the best I could do and I just forked over a small fortune for this when our outing was supposed to be free so shut up, put a smile on, and let's try to enjoy it" lecture from me. To his credit, he did. Mostly I think because he and Lena managed to get me on the frog jump ride which is one of those things that goes high up in the air and bounces you down and back up again. I HATE those rides and had managed to pretty much avoid going on them until today. I was thankful for the guy manning the ride when he told us the second time that he thought our party should split up so it was very easy for me to just bow out and let them keep going on it.
So it was expensive and basically the kids did fair rides for 2hrs but there was much laughing and shrieking and annoying each other. Only Nicholas got lost at any point and that was when I was watching him on the climbing structure. He popped down out of sight like he was going down the slide but then he didn't come down the slide. After a minute, I started looking for him and he was nowhere to be found. As I'm looking everywhere for him for a few minutes not having any clue how he had gotten past me, I see him outside of the climbing area completely with a HH employee. He comes running over to me and the guy waved and turned around. Nicholas then explained that he had ducked down and crawled around to the other side and taken off to go do something else. Ugh!!!! Can I say I'm not too thrilled with a HUGE climbing structure with multiple exits and lots of things to block your view when you are trying to keep an eye on your child?!
After all was said and done there, it was time for dinner. One kid wanted pizza, another soup, and blah blah blah. Finally Fresh Choice was agreed upon and we had fun trying to follow the directions my phone gave me as interpreted by Matthew. *Note to self....NEVER let Matthew navigate again!*
I'd like to note at this point that this was crazy. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I'm going to go with some sort of heat/sun induced cognitive malfunction when I said yes to taking 6 children to an all-you-can eat buffet by myself. Talk about herding cats! I'm pretty sure that they each ate about 5 bites of regular food and then 70 bazillion desserts. For myself, I was disappointed as the food was not as good as usual and their fresh-baked bread selection which is the biggest reason for going there as far as I'm concerned was abysmal. I'm not sure if it's just that particular one or FC in general going downhill but I'm not in any hurry to go to another one and find out.
You would now think that this would end our day and I would herd them back into the car and head for home. Yeah, well, I'm just not that bright. You see, there was a Barnes & Noble in the shopping mall and Hannah's birthday is next week and she wanted to go. I'm thinking I'm not sure I want to do this but it would make my life easier to get her input on what to get her there rather than her current suggestions which all include living things. I sit the kids down, give them the mommy glare of death and a list of rules that were to be followed or we would be leaving B&N immediately. You know, silly things like no running and keeping all body parts and fluids to yourself.
Thankfully they took me seriously and we were able to get in and out without me losing it or having to leave the basket of shopping behind. I got the shopping for Hannah done and another friend whose birthday is later this month and found a game we'd been wanting at 40% off with my membership discount. Add in some GCs I had and the game was free and got a few $$ off the gifts as well. Most amazing of all, I didn't buy any books for myself. Or given the fact that I had 6 kids with me including Nicholas this meant that I couldn't do more than a quick buzz to see if there was anything out I had forgotten to find out about and pick up before.
So now everyone is here and things are very quiet. I'm hoping that means they are asleep. Or at least scared of me enough to keep it down. LOL
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