Down a peg(or two)

I love taking my kids to the grocery store.
I usually pack a mini box of raisins, today it was fruit snacks, for them and let them ooh and aah as we shop. We stop to look at the lobsters and say hello on our way...I love it. Today Son lost his fruit snacks by the time we got to the carts. For once the store was not out of the car carts, so we loaded up into a red one and headed oh so patiently back to the car to retrieve them. As we walked I thought smugly to myself what a brave and patient mom I was, what other mom on earth actually looks forward to a trip to the grocery store with their kids? What a nice day....

The fruit snacks were not in the car.

Panic ensued. A search party was assembled. It failed miserably.

Patient still...then the climbing started(the seatbelts on the red car were broken) and the screaming resumed in the middle of the produce aisle while Daddy called on the cell. Great.
Eventually we got settled down enough to get the rest of our list and get to the checkout, where a couple of us came down with a bad case of the octopus grab-hands. This can be deadly, people. Serious. I think one of us gritted her teeth so hard she may have damaged a filling in her effort to maintain composure. The employees felt so sorry for us that they didn't even ask if we wanted help to our car, they just took the cart and went. That, right there, is my instant punishment for patting myself on the back for my mothering skills. By the way, in case you read my slightly smug money post a couple posts ago, I went a little over budget this trip, too. I'm blaming it on the kids. Ah, heck, it's probably my punishment for that post, too. Don't panic, L, it wasn't by much :).