Does it get better than this?

I think I provided with the boys with what they would consider to be the ideal day today. Chad was volunteering today at the Scooper Bowl, which is a big ice cream extravaganza to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. Eating ice cream for a good cause; it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Anyway, the event was in the city, so we took the train to get there - immediately, this makes it an awesome day for the boys. We spotted Chad, who was able to take a break and join us for a bit - component two of the best day ever is getting to spend weekday time with Daddy. At the Scooper Bowl, you pay a flat fee to enter, and inside, something like twelve different companies just have trays and trays filled with cups of different flavors of ice cream. You just walk around and grab any that look good. We happened to be situated right near the Haagen Daaz and Edy's tents, so we pretty much just went to town there. Parker and I played it cool and just had two cups each (I went for raspberry sorbet and orange sherbert). Brandon showed no such restraint, sampling mint chocolate chip, Belgian double chocolate, cookies and cream, orange sherbert and a flavor called birthday cake, which apparently tasted like cake batter. So, there's component three of the best day ever - ice cream and lots of it. The icing on the cake is that we were joined in our day's adventures by my friend Jen and her kids, so not only did Brandon and Parker get to have a fun day in the city, but they got to share it with friends.

The kids totally passed out within minutes of getting in the car for the drive home from the train station (we didn't take the train near out house, but drove in a bit to catch a different line that runs more frequently). Miracle of all miracles, I was actually able to pull off the transfer of Parker from his car seat to his bed. Brandon, well, not so much. But, he's playing quietly in his room, so I'll take it.

On a completely different note, I've been pondering how you quantify what a little peace and quiet is worth to the average Mom. I say this because we've logged about three hours playing with the new water table over the last two days... at what point does it pay for itself in terms of maintaining my sanity? Every time I'm sitting on the deck reading while the kids play with that water table, I'm thinking, "this was so worth every penny." Another example is that my kids love playing with the big boxes that I grab at the Costco to haul all my stuff in, and I sometimes think, "that Costco membership just paid for itself in the Beth-time I've gotten while they play with those boxes." Another example, we have this Sesame Street car thingee that we got Parker for his first birthday that I feel like one of the kids still hops on every day... that sucker was the best $20 we ever spent! This is all just gobblegook that is running in through my head, but I sometimes wonder, how much would I pay for something if I knew it would secure me an hour's peace and quiet? $5? $10? $3,789?