Cherry Berry School Fundraiser Night

All day I looked forward to getting home, changing into something comfy (translation: remove my bra), making dinner in a semi-relaxing atmosphere (note: utter calamity by most people's standards, but you get use to the noise in a big family), and then getting the boys showered and ready for bed without rushing to any sports practices. Just imagining it was heaven. But I walked in the door at 5:45pm & found myself surrounded by 3 boys with Cherry Berry stickers all over themselves. And while my face lit up with an excited smile to match theirs, big fat F bombs flew through my mind. I know what those stickers mean from a mile away with no explanation, but, as always, the boys immediately bombarded me with the reasons they're wearing them, "Guess, Mommy, guess! You can't guess can you? Can you guess, Mommy?" And then, as though they were given a script as soon as they walked into their classroom that morning to memorize throughout the day, they exclaimed in proactively exaggerated, pleading tones to squash any "no" that might be forming on my lips that we HAD to go to Cherry Berry like ALL the other kids and it's ONLY for tonight, & it's for OUR SCHOOL so we HAVE TO GO, Mommy! Can we go, Mommy??????" And so my vision of a quiet evening with no place to go was snuffed out when I said "Yes, we can go", not wanting to be responsible for ruining their little lives on such an important date! While I braced myself for the worst - very few places make me cringe like taking 4 little kids to a self serve frozen yogurt bar by myself (it's up there with a nail technician wielding a nail file drill in my direction), and I have actually promised myself "never again" - they surprised me with very good behavior and only minimal mess, which I consider to be payment for the mountains of toppings they managed to get on their yogurt while I was assisting someone else and didn't even notice until I saw the total due on the register. Luckily I caught Dominic millimeters before he got the GIANT chocolate covered strawberry that I'm pretty sure bumps up the cost of your yogurt by $5 all on its own. Anyway, there was a crowd and the boys found friends, and I was actually able to hold not one but THREE conversations with various parents (WINNING!). In the end, I have to say that, despite the fact that I'm now completely spent, it was a fun outing. The boys have come a long way since the last time I took them there on my own. Whew!