As regular readers may recall, I hate rattling around the house all day. But, the weather has been so cold and grim that it takes a concerted effort to get out, anywhere. Today was how I like my Saturdays.

Activity 1: The kids were watching their t.v. allotment, and I went off to jazzercise.

I came back at 9:30 to find John fed-up with the kids. I soon learned the problem. Rose was, and I'm about to use a technical term here, a cranky pants. She was frustrated, impatient, bored, annoyed, and snapping at everyone. After trying to manage the ramp building activity and refereeing fight after fight, I announced that we were going to the park.

This precipitated a search for the sand toys, which we never did find, but we did locate a parachute, ring toss game, and soap making kit, all at least fifteen years old.

Activity 2: We took the toys off to the park and had a so/so time. David was afraid of the parachute. Rose got bored. The slides were wet. But hey, at least the sun was out, and I bumped into a friend and got to chat with her.

Lunch went ok, mostly because John took over. Rose was still a cranky pants and refused to go shopping with John, but she did agree to not talk to me at all while I had my nap.

Activity 3: So, John took David happily off on a shopping trip, and I slept hard.

Activity 4: We did the soap making kit. It was great. Very, very simple, just mix the soap powder with water, knead, and cut out with the cookie cutters they provide. We weren't quite done clean-up

Activity 5: when friends showed up. We had a play date with Lisa, Paul, and Ben. That's two adults and a two year old. We played with their toy cars, had a great visit to a different park (the slides were now dry and Rose was totally over her affliction), and ended the play date before people started to tug toys away from each other.

I had a fine day despite the Rosemonster. I obviously need to plan more play dates and easy craft projects.