Happy Halloween, the Park and the Firehouse (Just call me Super Sitter!)

Humor me for a moment while we flash back a couple of months....For the 4Th of July, Ashton begged me to buy a swim suit so I could swim with them at the party. That's when I realized, I have been a behind-the-scenes mom. I let Tony handle the fun stuff. Quinn described it best one day....Dad is the active one and Mom is the one that lays on the couch and watches movies. I was devastated by that comment. So, for a few weeks this summer, I worked hard at being a "Fun Mom". But, just as quickly as I changed for that few weeks, I changed back. My depression took over and my safe place on the couch returned.

Now back to the present.....It's Halloween weekend and I've agreed to babysit my friends darling kids. One is almost 7 and the other is 5. They are so sweet. Before they came over on Friday night though, I started to get nervous...what was I thinking. Tony has to work on Saturday...that's me alone with 4 kids under the age of 10. AM I CRAZY???

Friday Night went great. It was Halloween Night and we took the kids Trick-Or-Treating. (Tony was home to help, so I was good for this part.) We actually ended up with 8 total kids to take Trick-Or-Treating!! They were so cute.

Saturday morning came around and a little of my inner panic set in. We spent most of the morning laying around the house and just enjoying the Saturday morning. That's when I realized that "Fun Mom" was no where to be found. I sucked up my selfishness and piled the 4 kids in the car. That's when we began what I called SSS...Super Saturday of Surprises.

We started by going to McDs and getting lunch, then we took it to a local park and I let the kids play for about an hour. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was outside. Here is it...Nov 1....and it's a gorgeous 70 degrees outside.



Then, I really put on my big girl panties and we all went to the Dollar Theatre to watch Wall-E. I guess I hadn't realized just how much I love popcorn. I've done so well on my diet. I made it past the pizza last night and all the Halloween candy in the house...but I can't make it through popcorn? I guess it is a lesson learned...I just can't buy popcorn at the movies. The temptation is more than I can handle.

So, after the movie, was I wasn't ready to come home yet. I wanted to do one more surprise for them. So we headed to Noble to visit Tony at the Firehouse. This is a normal visit for my kids, but for the Bell kids, it was a total surprise. Tony drove us around in the Fire Truck and all the kids got to spray water! They absolutely loved it.





So, as you can see, we've had a great couple of days. Not only have I enjoyed being somewhere other than my couch on a Saturday, but I've learned a lot about how I let my depression take control and let it affect everyone around me. It's time for me to take control instead of letting it take control of me.