Professor Plum, in the Lounge, with the Rope

We had a terrific, albeit busy, day today. First on our agenda: We took "Grandma" Phyllis to O'Charley's for her birthday. I'm so mad that I forgot my camera! It was kind of funny--I had suggested last week to Phyllis that the two of us might go out alone, but the kids were having none of that! They weren't about to get left out of the deal! The girls actually got into a little bickering match about who was going to get to hand Grandma Phyllis her gift; interesting, because when we actually went to pick out her gift, they got sidetracked by all the pretty earrings and necklaces and rings--for little girls. The way they were acting all miffed about wanting to be the only one to hand her her gift, you'd have thought they personally selected her present! (That's Grandma Phyllis with the kids on Christmas 2005--I'm digging into my photo archives for this blog entry!)

After lunch we dropped Grandma Phyllis off at her house, made a quick stop at our house to drop off Randy, Tyler, Darcy and Peyton; and Sawyer and I hoofed it out to Kohl's to make some returns (we'd bought some OSU sweatshirts back in December and no, I was not returning them because OSU lost the championship game!). Not that I minded having Sawyer along for one second, but no amount of persuasion was going to convince him to stay behind and play with the others. "I'm going with YOU, Mommy." I'm telling you, that kid does wonders for my ego! I think Randy was starting to get a little hurt because for a while there Sawyer wanted Mommy to do everything. "Do you need help wiping your nose, Sawyer?" "MOMMY will do it." "Can I get you a glass of orange juice, Sawyer?" "MOMMY will do it." "Want me to get that toy for you, Sawyer?" "MOMMY will do it!" You can imagine how tired Mommy was getting! But honestly, doesn't it feel good to be needed???

After Kohl's, we swung back by the house to pick up Darcy, then headed for the library where we spent an hour reading and loading up on more books for which I have completely run out of space in my house! Can one EVER have enough bookshelf space? I have filled every bookshelf on every bookcase, every basket, every crate, they're piled on the floor, on the couch, on beds (ask Darcy how many times a mound of books has fallen off her top bunk in the middle of the night--no, better yet, ask her disgruntled dad!) . . . . I know I should declare a moratorium on more library books but that would simply be doing the unthinkable. A ban on books? Absolutely not!

We ended our day with a rousing game of Clue, which the kids had never played before. It is sometimes hard for me to put myself in their place and remember that at their age I was not all that hip to the ways of strategy and bluffing. I got cracked up because Tyler and Darcy both practically stopped the game at one point, one after the other, furiously whispering to me and demanding to know why I (who was helping Peyton) would suggest that the murder had been committed with the lead pipe, when they both knew good and well that Peyton was HOLDING the lead pipe card in her hand! Both Randy and I had tried to explain that you sometimes want to mislead your opponents by including certain pieces of information you already have as a way of drawing out information you do not yet have, but it evidently flew right over their heads. They were stymied, and then downright outraged when Peyton went on to make an accusation that turned out to be correct (and of course did not include the lead pipe!). I have no doubt they'll be gunning for a rematch tomorrow.