What to expect when.....

I just spent FOUR hours watching Cailey and Braden test for their next Tae Kwon Do belt. Did you catch how much time I said??? Yes, Brian is working late and pretty much all weekend because of a shut down (he's does computer stuff) so I'm left with all the kids. Not a problem normally, and tomorrow after swimming lessons I'll be taking them to my parent's for the week (mini vacation!) The point...ok, so today I left the house (with all three as usual) at 9:30 to run errands. We went to Patsy Aiken (super sale) where it was so crazy that we had to leave. Next we headed to return some ribbon...then to get Brian some new Crocs (he is SO hard on shoes and has worn his old Crocs to pieces!), next to the teacher store, then on to the library. After all that I took the kids to Chick fil A for a quick lunch before we went to Cailey's first Girl Scout meeting (again...with ALL the kids). It's a homeschool Girl Scout Troop (very exciting) and somehow I ended up being a co leader..don't ask. We were done with Scouts at 3:00 and got home at 3:30. Kinsey got a mini nap and I did a little packing while Cailey and Braden played (VERY nicely, I might add)! At 5:00 we had to leave to take Cailey and Braden to their Tae Kwon Do testing....I had NO idea what to expect. My assumption: we'll be here thirty minutes, go home, eat, and I'll finish packing...and put the kids to bed early so I can crash before the craziness tomorrow will bring. YEAH RIGHT!! Apparently these things take HOURS! We got home after 9:00 PM!! Kinsey had to sit for 4 hours and watch a bunch of people she didn't know make loud noises and punch at nothing. For the record, she did AWESOME for someone who was starving to death and dehydrated. I didn't feed the kids...I was going to feed them at 6:00. My poor children! At 8:00 I realized they had a vending machine (and ACTUALLY had cash...a miracle) and bought a ton of junk for them to eat. Their dinner: Animal cookies, Cheez-it's, Cheetos, Combos, PB Granola Bar, and Chex Mix. I'm NOT exaggerating...they really did eat that for dinner! Kinsey was able to eat right away, but it was trickier getting it to the other two. I had to sneak it to them because they weren't supposed to communicate with us. I couldn't help myself..they were STARVING! Have you seen my son?? He needs to eat! They had a mini break so I lucked out and was able to give them their nutritious dinner. While they were eating I was SURE to call Brian and let him know how I felt about the whole situation. He was told the testing wouldn't take that long and was frustrated too. The building was so terrible for pictures, but I did take some really bad ones. I'm too tired to put them up now though. We came home, packed, got ready for swimming lessons in the morning, and then our trip.
Brian is still not home and will probably have to work most of the night then go right back tomorrow morning and do it again....I'm SO glad he only has to do this once a year:).