Just Keep Swimming: Mother's Day Weekend

Saturday, Archie and Lawrence were driving me nuts with their bickering. After checking with a few friends to see if Archie could make other plans, I decided he was stuck going to the grocery store and other errands with me. I bribed him with the promise of a surprise. I heard through the grapevine that it was Free Comic Book Day at several comic book stores. So our first stop on our errand trip was to Up, Up and Away comic book store. I have never, ever seen so many people packed into that store before. Not that I frequent the comic book store all that often...I have been in once or twice for gifts.

When we arrived, the parking lot was packed full and we saw Star Wars characters out front! Happy Day! Except that I failed to bring the camera. Who knew that Storm Troopers would make an appearance on our shopping trip? I decided it would be worth it to go back home and get it. We were only about a mile or two from home anyway.

The Storm Trooper guys looked like they spent quite a few dollars on their costumes. I'm glad I kept my mouth shut during this trip because it turns out I know absolutely NOTHING about Star Wars. After we left, Archie and I were discussing the event. Archie says that the kid was Luke Skywalker (He has a green light saber. DUH!). I was thinking Ewok. Or those Sand People in Episode 4. I almost said something to the kid about Ewoks.

*Whew* I almost embarrassed my son by being all lame! Am I that old already???

Then the guy in black (I also categorized him as a Storm Trooper) is a Tie Fighter Pilot. Well, shut my mouth! Tie Fighter Pilot it is.

Spiderman was an easy one. I KNOW who Spiderman is! Kudos to the guy doing Spiderman...I asked him if I could get a picture of Archie with him and he immediately went into official 'Spidey' pose!

They had some comic book authors there as well. They were sitting at a table drawing and signing stuff for people. They were the author of The Walking Dead or some other such horror comics. Not really our speed, but it was fun to watch them draw. We did rack up on lots of free comics. Archie says they were pretty good comics too. He likes Hot Stuff, Archie Comics (of course, right?), Simpsons, and other kinds of cartoon-y stuff. They also gave away a free Green Lantern figure while we were there.

I took Archie out to lunch after that, and then we went to the grocery store for a marathon shopping session. I had assigned him some Grocery Store Math to do to keep him busy, so he went his way and I went mine. Surprisingly we both got done close to the same time! I asked him if it was worth the boring grocery store trip to go to Free Comic Book Day and he said it was very worth it!

On Mother's Day, it was rather gloomy outside. Our initial plan was to go camping this weekend, but the weekend was forecasted to be cold at night and rainy. Plus, we've had lots of flooding around here and lots of the camping places that were close by were probably still underwater.

We went to church, then sat around for most of the day. The sun finally made an appearance around 4 in the afternoon. We went to dinner (Chinese buffet because it's the easiest restaurant with kids except for McDonalds or Chic-Fil-A) and then went to Miami Whitewater Forest, which is about 15 minutes from our house. There is a really great biking path all around the forest that's 8 or 10 miles around. We only walked the inner loop which was about 2 miles. We had a great time! Baby loves being in the back pack and Lawrence rode his tricycle. Archie was unhappy about not bringing bikes at first, but I think he ended up having a good time anyway. I told him we'd do a day biking trip sometime soon and bring a picnic and the bike trailer for the little ones.

At the beginning of our walk we passed some ladies and their dog going the opposite way from us. Of course, Lawrence had something to say about their dog. He likes animals. At the end of our walk, we saw them again. Lawrence shouted as loud as he could, "Hey, you! Remember me?" And I think he was shouting at the dog, not the people!

We took the kiddos to the play area after our walk. Lawrence is quite a ladies' man. Everywhere he goes, and I mean everywhere, he finds some girls to play with. He has quite the harem at church and at baseball. It's the sole reason he goes to church and baseball. To play with girls. When he arrives, he walks in like he owns the place and shouts out, "Hey girls! Remember me?"

It's not only little girls...He has a bit of a crush on our 89 year old neighbor across the street, who also goes to church with us. Last Wednesday, he said to her, "Hey, Miss Dottie..." Said in the same tone as "Hey good lookin'!" It's not a bad opener.

Anyway, it didn't take him long to find some girls at the playground. We played for a little while, and wore everyone the rest of the way out.