Life and Times of The Johnston family: Bravo Parent Night and a Crazy Week!

Ok so going back a couple Mondays ago(Nov. 3rd), Tony went to California for business VERY early that morning, so I was going to be on my own with the kids until Wednesday evening. So Monday I decided to do some fun things with the kids to keep their minds off missing daddy. We started by going to Toys R Us where Elizabeth had her eye on a Puppy Surprise she's been saving her money for and finally had enough! She originally wanted the dalmatian but we found out they are hard to find as there aren't as many made, so she gladly settled on a very cute pink and white one...not before wandering pretty much the entire store to make sure there wasn't anything she wanted more(which of course there wasn't). She bought her Puppy Surprise and I opened it the best I could in the car where she discovered there were three very cute girl puppies inside...surprise! ;) As I buckled Devin in I asked him where his stuffed Marshall dog(from Paw Patrol)was and we realized he'd lost it in the store somewhere. :( So we got out again and wandered all over the store but could not find Marshall we asked at the front if it had been turned in but no such luck. Devin was sad but realized it was his own fault for bringing it in and putting it down and leaving it...hard lesson learned! We then went to Chuck E Cheese to use up the 100+ tokens we had leftover from Elizabeth's birthday party, we also got a meal deal with pizza drinks and some more tokens. The kids had an absolute blast! It wasn't too busy either which was nice! They played for nearly 4 hours! Then we cashed in their tickets, got some fun prizes and went home for a bit until it was time to take Elizabeth to her theater class. Then we came home and I cooked dinner and the kids had fun playing until bedtime. Tuesday morning I took the kids to their dentist appointment. It should NOT be so hard....but for us it is a HUGE ordeal! Devin didn't like them putting the thing in his mouth for the x-rays, but Elizabeth did it like a champ! Elizabeth would not let the hygienist clean her teeth...not even with her new toothbrush! She said she couldn't handle the taste and texture of the "special toothpaste". It took two hygienists, the dentist and me holding her down for the dentist to get her teeth cleaned and checked, while she freaked out. Devin looked pained and terrified the entire time his teeth got cleaned but he let her do it, though she told me she felt horrible about it whenever she saw the look on his face. In the end both kids managed to get their teeth cleaned and neither had any cavities, although Devin did have two "pre-cavities" on his back teeth the dentist going to keep an eye on. After that we went to Barnes and Noble and I let the kids look at books for a while, Elizabeth read to Devin and another little girl who was there, about five or six books, then they each picked out a Thanksgiving book to add to our collection. Then we went home to have lunch, and had another just laid back day. Wednesday was a typical day, we started getting caught up on the school as we missed the previous couple days. That evening was the kids Bravo classes and it was Parent night as well! So I brought the camera and took some pictures of Devin in his tumbling class, then Tony came(boy was I glad to see him!!) and he watched Devin while I went and watched Elizabeth in her piano class. They played a couple fun songs with bells! To celebrate Tony coming home and how great the kids did in their classes we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner which was fun! Thursday Devin had preschool and Elizabeth and I got caught up with her school. That afternoon we drove to Cookie Cutters to get Devin's haircut, then after we stopped by my grandparent's house and visited with them for a while, which was as it always is so great! Friday was a hard day for Devin. He melted down over EVERYTHING! He even spent almost an hour in his room lamenting the fact that when he is six years old he won't be a girl and he really really wanted to be a girl!! He also didn't want to get dressed, or eat or play with anything....ugh it was a long hard morning! Finally about one I got him calmed down enough in his room that he fell asleep! My mom graciously got me some lunch while she was out running errands and picking lunch up for herself. We ate while Elizabeth watched her Spanish lesson video and my mom and I chatted. That evening we were going to go to our ward's fall party but Devin had such a long hard day and was still very much on edge(and I was beyond exhausted!) that we decided to just stay home and play it safe with him. Saturday Tony got a lot if things done in the morning with the kids while I had some much needed very much appreciated alone time! The afternoon we just took it easy. It was so nice to not have a marathon Saturday for once! Sunday was church and that evening Jen and Daniel joined us for a little Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by Tony, which was delicious and a great time spent chatting while the kiddos played. And that was our week!

One of Devin's favorite games, he racks up the tickets like crazy!