A surprise cousin time

Thursday, Memorial Day, May 30:  I picked up Kaity from school at the usual time and we were practically all the way to my house when my phone rang! If anyone had told me when I was a kid (some 55+ years ago) that one day I would be driving in my car and I would be able to receive a call over the speakers of my car and be able to talk without ever having to lift my hands off the wheel, I would have thought they had lost their ever-lovin' mind! But that is exactly what happened! It was Kelly! She seemed stressed, which is highly unusual for Kelly. She said that both she and Dylan had failed to tell me to pick Brendan up from school today! We had text'd earlier in the day and I told them I was unable to do that due to my schedule with Kaity. I told them the only way it could work is if I picked Brendan up super early from school and then I could pick Kaity up at her usual time. Since they had never gotten back to me, I assumed that picking Brendan up early wasn't an option.

BUT ... it WAS an option and both of them thought they had told me! Anyway, long story short is that Kaity and I high-tailed it over to Brendan's school just as fast as traffic would allow (which was as slow as a snail). We took all of the uncrowded back roads that we could, but it still took us 38 minutes to get to Brendan! Dylan and Kelly felt terrible! Me too! But do you know something? It worked out just fine.

 I was super thankful to see a smile on Brendan's face when Kaity and I showed up. We decided Brendan should show Kaity around his playground for a little while to let off some energy! So the cousins played for a full 30 minutes outside: climbing, playing tag, running, etc. It was so much fun to watch them.

 Darling Brendan ...

 And our monkey-girl, Kaity!

 They had so much fun!

 Brendan and Kaity were super happy to see each other. Since Brendan had been cooped up inside for an hour after school, this outside play was a good thing. AND Kaity had been sitting in the back seat of my car helping me (!!) maneuver in and out of traffic. We took ONE wrong turn (I always make at least one mistake), but it didn't cost us too much time. Sometimes those back roads can turn me around!

 For a little extra fun, we ate at Chick Fil-A, because they kids were hungry. I let them play first in the inside playground. They were wild in here! They had so much fun!

 Baby Jo-Jo was with us (of course) and joined in on the fun.

 Kaity set Jo-Jo up in her high chair and she joined us while we ate.

I love you kids! We were meeting Kaity's dad downtown for the Memorial Day parade, and since it is a school night and we would be late, we dropped Brendan off at his house (without ever mentioning a parade), said "hi" to Aidan and Dylan (baby Erin was sleeping), and aimed our car for downtown!