Outing

Under most circumstances, I'd rather try to bathe twelve cats in the dark than take my kids on errands. The result is the same. You end up wrestling with a small irrational creature, frustrated, tired, and convinced that one of them has pooped while you weren't watching. Caterwalling and tears ensue. Except that when it's taking kids on errands, all of that is happening on aisle 5 at Walmart.
Today was an exception. We wanted to take the kids to see Frozen (by far the best movie put out by Disney in a long time). If we were going to be in town, we needed groceries. The other thing about having a large family and driving a municipal stadium everywhere is that you really avoid making too many trips to town. I  think my gas bill could feed a small family for a month.  We took a large breath and rolled the whole raucous herd into the bus. I have to stop here and admit that I love the life and excitement these kids bring to every activity. Doing stuff with them just makes me happy. But I digress.......
Sam's was our first stop. Usually, I'm there during the week or on Sunday afternoon. Nothing during those times prepared me for the sheer crush of people milling about the parking lot and store. I include the parking lot because people seemed to mosy through it as if they were window shopping for their next vehicle. No worries about people actually trying to make their way to an empty spot in the outer boondocks. 
David and I decided to divide and conquer in order to be able to get our stuff and get out in slightly less time than it took the Israelites to cross the desert. It worked well! The kids took joy in helping to heap our carts with all the stuff they like to scarf down during the week. They pointed out 500 other "yummy" looking foods (gum, trail mix, crackers, cookies, cheesecake...) that they really needed. With all the sympathy of someone who has to cough up the dough to feed these creatures with black holes for stomachs, I refused. Most of it. Some of it. OK. I bought the fishy crackers. And cheese sticks. And bacon. I'm sure I would have gotten all that anyway.
David took most of the kids to the bus while I checked out. As I watched them gather round him like little electrons around the big daddy nucleus, I couldn't hide my smile. We're a big family when you look at it from the outside. And lots of people were looking.
After Sams, we ate a snack in the picnic area of another local grocery while David ran in for coffee. My kids were everywhere. Crawling through hoops set up as a bike rack. Jumping from rock to rock. Playing follow the leader. Without a 'real'  play set, they had a ball just being with each other. And eating fishy crackers and cheese. See. I knew it would be handy.
The movie theater was surprisingly packed for a movie that has been out this long. We found good seats. The three big kids in  front of us and the rest scattered on and around us. Watching them laugh and engage in the story was as much fun as the movie itself.
Next stop. Food. Yes. More food. We dropped a small fortune at McDonald's for the sole  purpose of letting the hoodlums run and play after nearly two hours of sitting still. I was so proud of my kids. We filled two tables. They played and responded well to orders and discipline. We gathered them to go and I began to mentally pat myself on the back for the order we were managing to keep. Then Devin went and lit off the emergency alarm on our way out the door. Yeah. That's my  kid. So sorry. We were just leaving. Enjoy the ear piercing siren.
By this time it was 7:30. We're usually starting to work kids toward bed. And we still had to do Walmart. Divide and conquer once again saved us both time and frustration. I couldn't help but marvel at the fun we would have missed out on if we hadn't attempted what might have seemed crazy. The kids reveled in the experience of just being out with us. They were distracting and funny and helpful and worth having along.
We got home with tired kids and tired adults. But we were all happy.