Who's The Boss

Over the weekend we took a two hour drive to attend a kid's birthday party. Now I wouldn't do this for just anyone but since, BethAnnDoddKoehn is one of my closest friends, (and since I'm currently in the running to be her new BFF) we took the trip. The party was for her kids Wyatt and Molly who have birthdays two months apart, but she decided to combine them and have one party. Smart girl! Some of you may remember me writing about us driving to Molly's birthday party last year and what a disaster that trip was. At the time Beth and her family weren't living in CA, but were here visiting for Molly's birthday. The party was at her mom's house near San Diego. Since then, they have moved back and bought their own house in a place that is not as bad to get to. I mean don't get me wrong, there was still traffic and it still took two hours, but not the nightmare like last year. (THREE AND A HALF HOURS)

My girls had a great time at the party. There were balloon animals and face painting, two things they go nuts over, so it was a hit. Not to mention the theme was princesses (for Molly) and pirates (for Wyatt). "Princess clothes and face painting! Plus we get CAKE?! Can we come here EVERY weekend?!"

When we left we decided to stop and grab something to eat for dinner. Mostly because we didn't really want cake being their last meal of the day. Plus I figured this way we would kill about 45 minutes which would get us closer to them falling asleep in the car for the night. This way we could just transfer them to bed when we got home. I had brought their pajamas to change them so there would be no need to wake them later. It works so much better this way, something I discovered a long time ago. If you're ever in doubt of how late you'll be home, bring the PJs. You'll thank me later.

After we ate, I took all the girls to the bathroom to potty and clean their face paint off before we left. This was something I knew they would hassle me about, but the last thing I wanted was face paint all over pillow cases and sheets, so it had to come off in the bathroom. I informed them of my intentions of cleaning their faces when they were done going to the potty, and Sonya immediately started to argue.

"It won't make a mess! I promise! But it looks so pretty!"

"I know, it does but we have to clean your face before bedtime, Sonya," I explained.

"BUT..." She started again.

I just held up my hand to stop her talking, looked at her and said something I haven't in a while. I figured it was time to pull it back out of the arsenal.

"Sonya-who is in charge here?" I asked.

She looked down at the ground dejected, remembering this old question, and mumbled,

"Mommy."

"That's right," I said. Then just for good measure I looked at Lana and asked her the same thing.

She also correctly replied,

"Mommy!"

Not to leave anyone out, I looked over at Georgia who hadn't been paying much attention to this whole exchange, and I said,

"GG, who is in charge?"

Without missing a beat, she smiled and happily replied,

"SONYA!"

To which Sonya said,

"YEAH!"

Looks like I am being slowly phased out.