Monsters, or why did I even bother??!!

In a moment of insanity or generosity toward DH, I took the girls with me to finish our shopping for our Halloween costumes. B has wanted us to go as the Incredibles. Pretty easy costume. We'll all wear red shirts and black pants and eye masks. Easy. Our first stop was Kohl's to return some towels that I bought earlier this week; I was trying to match the floral wallpaper in my bathroom and of course the expensive Laura Ashley towels matched, not the less expensive brands. As soon as we got in the store things went downhill. I was holding S's hand and B was trailing behind us. She ran and caught up to us before we arrived at Customer Service. However, B disappeared seemingly right as S and I got in the line. I called out her name, got no answer, and had to get out of the line to look for her. A nice young lady standing nearby saw me and told me that she was hiding in between the clothing racks just outside Customer Service. I thanked her and then called B's name again. She finally came back to me and I read her the riot act about running away from me in a store.

Our next stop was Party City to get the masks. The store is located next to Linens N Things, which carries the bedding I want to get B, so I brought the girls in the store to look at it in person. B was excited to see her name on the bedding and liked the colors. I told her that Santa is watching her every move, and if she's good, perhaps he'll get her bedding, or maybe her family will give her pieces of the set for Christmas. She seemed happy and promised to be good. So we went into Party City which was still pretty crowded with other last minute shoppers. People were mulling over which costume to purchase, and the photo display of costumes was about 5 feet tall by 10 feet wide, and a two sided display at that, and even listed the prices of the costumes on each photo. Nearly every single costume was sold out, so I have no idea what people were looking at, unless they were trying to determine if they had enough things at home to make a costume like what they saw. We finally found the masks and spent a whopping $5.36 at Party City and left for our next stop, Target. And yes, we've taught B the finer points of pronouncing it "tar-zhay".

I got a shopping cart and put S in the front seat and sat B in the cart area. Things disintegrated once we entered the store. The girls kept touching each other, fighting over things, and when B hung something on the back of the seat, S would take it off, and they fought over that. It was a delightful trip, made even better because I couldn't find cheap black sweat pants for all the kids, nor could I find plain red sweatshirts either in their sizes. I think I wound up with red t-shirts for DH and myself, a red long sleeve onesie for A, a sweatshirt for B, and a full zip hoodie for B. By the time we had paid for our things, I was starved and certain that the girls were also hungry. In another moment of stupidity I decided we could eat at the Target food court. B wanted chicken tenders, but they'd take 8 minutes to cook, so I asked about the mac-n-cheese. Nope, that would take 4 minutes. I finally asked the guy what was ready NOW. Hot dogs, pizza and popcorn. Great. Two hot dog kids meals, and a dog and drink for me and we were set. Then the soda fountain only had soda, light lemonade (I hate Minute Maid for taking away the regular lemonade at every fountain!), and iced tea. My kids don't drink soda, I'm not stupid enough to let them drink anything caffeinated, nor am I crazy enough to let them drink anything diet. I asked the fellow who delivered our hot dogs to us if there was anything else they could drink and he said we could have juice boxes; that made my day. We ate and then I grabbed an applesauce for S and chips for B, since the cashier hadn't reminded me to take them for the girls.

By this point my car is on Empty and the light is on; I need to get gas. Hey, it's only been 9 days!! Back in PA, with my commute, I needed to fill the tank about every 5-6 days. So I bit the bullet and ran into HEB to get a few things. The girls sat next to each other in the racecar shopping cart and fought with each other from the minute they sat down. By the end, S had removed her shoes and socks. Luckily I was able to find both pairs while we were on the checkout line. I filled the van up with gas at the HEB gas station and went home, where I immediately began ranting at DH about how bad the girls were.

Why the hell did I bother getting anything to make costumes? They can just go out tomorrow as the little monsters they are.