Grocery Shopping

I remember when I was getting ready to have Alex and I thought that there was no way I could take 3 children grocery shopping. Then when I was pregnant with Anthony I really thought there was no way especially when 3 out of the 4 children were under the age of 5. When I had Christian I was positive it would be an impossible feat to take 5 children grocery shopping, especially since we shop at The Walmart Super Center which is larger than a regular grocery store, and it takes longer to go through. Even though it is not as impossible as I had thought, it is definitely a challenge and requires a list, behavior expectations for the children, and A LOT of patience.
Honestly, I prefer to shop on Saturday mornings when Art is able to stay at home with the boys and Chelsea and I can go together. However, the rising price of gas and the fact that we live 15 miles from town has forced me to change my grocery shopping habits, and go shopping on days that we already have to be in town.
Yesterday we had no food left at all and I was planning on taking the kids with me in the morning to go shopping when I found out there was a picnic at the park for a friend that is moving. I really wanted to go to the picnic, but I was worried about taking 5 sweaty tired kids through Walmart with me when we had so much to buy. We went to the picnic in the park and the kids and I had a great time visiting with friends. I made sure that all of the children ate fairly well so they wouldn't be hungry when we got to the store and made plans to leave the park by 12:00. At 11:55 we were loaded up and on our way to Walmart and at 12:05 Christian had already fallen asleep in the truck and I had to wake him up. I gave the children the "talk " about how I expected them to behave and the consequences if they chose not to. Chelsea loaded Anthony into one shopping cart I loaded Christian into the other and we made our way through the store.
I could not believe how well behaved they were! We were in the store for a full hour and not one argument, fight, grabbing items off the shelf, running down the aisles or hiding. There was no crying from Christian or Anthony and no misbehaving in the checkout line. I was so proud of the children I let them pick out a sucker on the way out. Maybe going to the park first was a great idea after all!