Fun, "Free" , & Marie

We were all excited for grandma's visit during Spring Break. When I'd asked her what she'd like to do she said, "Oh, I am sure you'll find some fun free things to do or we'll just hang out." I researched fun & free ideas for 2 weeks unable to come up with anything. I started to worry until I was at the checkout station of Costco. I read a flier that Marie Osmond would be at Costco to do a book signing while my mom would be in town. I thought perhaps this might be something my mom would want to do.
My mom arrived ready for fun and I became really ill. Yuck. I felt terrible. My mom was wonderful. I went to bed. She fed my kids, washed dishes, swept floors, took trash out, and played with the kids. I woke up and thought maybe we could take the kids to play at the mall since it was snowing and they were becoming too stir crazy. I remembered that Marie would be at Costco later that day and told my mom about it. She became really interested. She even had just purchased Marie's book. After 90 minutes at the mall I was done. All of my desires to help my mom have a fun time fled at the reality of my body wanting bed. We went home. My mom & the girls went back to Costco. They returned home later without seeing Marie. The line was too long. I felt terrible. My mom made dinner and did the dishes. I felt worse. My mom told me Marie would be at Deseret Book store the following evening and suggested that maybe we could try again. I really wanted to.
The next day, I felt much better. My mom took us to lunch ($$). We took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo ($$). We didn't have time to take some kids home if we were to make it to see Marie so we all went. In haste, I wasn't prepared for a day long adventure. To appease Noah, I promised him he could find the new release of a book he'd wanted and read it in a corner while we saw Marie. He was excited about this. I ended up buying the book plus a book for Emma that she'd found and didn't have time to finish ($$). We dropped Elizabeth & my mom off to get a place in line. I took the other kids to Wal-mart to buy treats ($$). Rilla had a blow-out and was needing a change of clothes. I dropped the kids off at the book store and took Nathan & Rilla next door to Babies R Us. We found a pair of Jammies for Rilla ($$), a toy for Rilla to give her something to do ($), and Nathan found some super yummy chocolate covered animal crackers he just had to have ($). I ended up feeding & reading to several other children as well as my own. I considered putting a sack out with the word, "tips for the store nanny" scrawled on it, but didn't have a sack. I was happy that Tessa made friends with one little girl and that kept her pleasant and entertained. My only concern with these "orphans" was that I never saw their guardians and had hoped no one would come after me, angry that their children had managed to swipe candy from a stranger's child's carseat. I also was a bit concerned that two children seemed deeply in love with Rilla and couldn't keep their hands off her. I tried not to think about where those hands might have been nor what germs might be passed to my sweet baby. And, I am glad I allowed them to play with her since it has been a week and Rilla has no signs of strange diseases.
I borrowed a phone and called Ray to tell him where we were and not to worry. He suggested that we get dinner out ($$) and that he'd take care of his own dinner.
We did see, meet, and got our picture taken with Marie. My mom was elated! So, while I am not sure this experience can be categorized as a "fun & free" activity, it was a huge success.
Two and one-half hours in a tiny children's nook in an over-heated and extremely crowded bookstore with six kids of my own plus all the others I entertained was priceless just to see my mom so happy.