An Atypical Wednesday

This morning found us at 9:30 at the Palace Theater in Waterbury to see
Frankly Ben: The Science of Achievement.

From the Palace Theater website:
Meet Benjamin Franklin - not the elder statesman - but Ben, the 15 year old, who is inquisitive, mischievous, and of course, inventive. Ben's first great idea is to form a club called Junto. But while Ben thinks his club is about hanging out and having fun, his club mates have something else in mind. Visit a world of scientific invention and individual achievement in this contemporary musical about making history.

The website said it was "best for grades 4 - 8", but both of my boys loved it. R has always had a thing for Ben Franklin, and the whole thing was entertaining enough to keep E entranced also.

After the show we stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick up a book for my cousin's 40th birthday. And since we were near Hometown Buffet I let the boys talk me into lunch there.

After lunch we headed home to wrap our friends' birthday gifts; their mother was holding their "party" at the playground after playgroup.

So imagine our surprise when we arrived down in Hamden 30 minutes late and no one was there yet. I thought perhaps I missed an email saying the location had changed, but after about 10 minutes another family showed up. They had no idea about the party, but did see one email from a family saying they wouldn't make it. Since that family is younger than ours, my boys were pretty adamant about leaving, so after a 10 minute visit, we did.

Since we were in Hamden, we did a few things down there; Home Depot for dirt and flowers; returns to Kohls; Walmart for containers to keep Matchbox cars in; Good Will to get rid of some stuff.

On the way home we stopped at Cheshire Nursery to take a look around. Then we came home and dumped all the dirt and flowers from Home Depot, and headed out again to nurseries in Cheshire. I bought some flowers and tried to order some mulch, but that place was closed.

When we returned home I was glad to find the crockpot doing its thing. Also found a voicemail from someone in playgroup apologizing for not going due to a bad allergy headache. The email which had been sent out said that that family needed "down time". I have no idea what happened with the "birthday party".

It just worked out to be one of those days where people couldn't make it. It's just very frustrating because I don't feel that people appreciate what half an hour there and half an hour back really means. Plus it's a full gallon of gas. The boys were pissed: "this is not the first time we came all the way here and no one else showed up". I wish our group were bigger.