PBW#1 Playground Mayhem and Reunion Fun

Sassy Mom invited me to join the weekend photo meme/linky group she started and here I am, happy to oblige. Saturday started out quiet and ended with me wanting to burrow my face under my neckline (which, if done, would  have only resulted in exposure of an expanse of stretchmarks and rolls of fat otherwise known as my tummy). Husband got home late and instead of heading on to Greenhills as planned, we ended up at a nearby mall for dinner and playground time for Marguerite (rainy season means diminished outdoor playground fun, so we make do with the indoor variety). Anyway, here are pictures from dinner, but not counting Marguerite knocking over a glass of mango juice and asking to go to the bathroom three times (oh and she got some honey mustard on her middle finger and ended up flipping off everybody in the vicinity for about two minutes - Mark naturally had to take a picture), it was really pretty uneventful. Look:

   

And then off we went to a playground, a place where I intend never to show my face again. Unlike other places, this one allowed children Marguerite's age to play unaccompanied. I wanted to see if Marguerite would be fine without my usual supervision, so I sent her off to play and parked myself in the waiting area where I could still watch and intervene if such a need arose. There were some close calls with an unpleasant older boy (no prejudice here; the boy had skirmish after skirmish piled on top of other skirmishes), but the staff was pretty vigilant about stuff like that. What they or I didn't foresee was a little girl who climbed up to the loft (where the girly toys were - dressers, toy kitchens...) and decided to empty her bladder there without any warning whatsoever. We're talking about a little girl who has been trained for more than a year. A girl who in no uncertain terms tells you that she wants to pee or poo. I quickly took the said little girl to the restroom to change her and when we were done, she had every intention of going back to play. I told her that the playground was closing (it was close to 9pm) and proceeded to moan until the next day how embarrassed I was (out of M's earshot, of course). Mark -- well, my husband is made of tougher mettle and requires much more to give in to embarrassment - assured me that places like that expect to encounter accidents like that, but I was all - that's why I should have gone in with her... Hanyway... I've been known to flog myself over smaller matters, soo...

Sunday, it was off to church as usual. The worship part was particularly beautiful and moving, so naturally I cried my eyes out, forgetting that I had non-waterproof mascara on (since Marguerite hid the waterproof ones in some obscure location) and afterward had to wipe my black streaked face, but not before Marguerite got a load of it and gave her commentary, "You look like a monster, Mommy." My mom who was seated next to us started laughing her head off. Marguerite thought it necessary to repeat her statement - twice, at that - in case I missed it the first time. I just said, "Wow, thanks so much, Midge." Kids!

For the afternoon fellowship, our group shared tips and played a game. I was in charge of sharing natural alternatives. Mark took pictures but I looked especially frumpy, so I'm not posting any of those.

Afterward, the three of us headed to SM North where I met my HS classmates for a small reunion. When I was a junior, I transferred from a Catholic girls' school to a small Christian school where I made some really great friends. Here are some of them:

Mark and Marguerite left me there to continue Marguerite's prematurely aborted playground fun from the previous night. Here are pics from that. It was thankfully uneventful, save for Mark being told to get his grown-up butt off the slide.

  

It was a happy weekend. Thanks for reading. :)