September 3: TJ & WF w/C&A

Our family has a bi-monthly routine of shopping Whole Foods Market and Trader Joes. It's bi-monthly because it's a 20-minute drive one-way to these stores and not typically the way we want to spend our time every weekend. So, we do it twice a month, traditionally on a Friday evening when the traffic isn't as heavy as it would otherwise be, say, on a Saturday or Sunday. We make a family event out of it, usually eating out somewhere prior to doing the food shopping. Anyway, with the upcoming Labor Day holiday just ahead, I decided to take today off and spend it with the kids to celebrate their final day of Summer freedom before heading back-to-school on September 7. Some celebration for them, as I ended up dragging them along with me to Whole Foods and Trader Joes in an effort to eliminate the need to make this trip over our long Labor Day weekend. This marked the first time that I had gone solo with the kids on this particular endeavor, and, to be honest, I really didn't know which kids would show up: the jovial helpers who follow Dad's instructions and listen intently OR the crazed wild bunch hellbent on creating mischief and doing whatever they damn well pleased. Luckily, it was more of the former and less of the latter in this instance. Though it took significantly longer with 3 of us than it usually does with 4, we successfully secured everything on our list (and then some) and knocked this one off of the weekend task list; giving us more time to do something a bit more fun! You gotta love when things just come together nicely.