Friday Night Round-Up: Week 33

$147.52

I am pleased with myself.

Well, I was, until Saturday night. Walking into the seventh day of the food week we were on target to make the budget for the first time since we started this challenge in early August.

The final day of Week 33's challenge started out promising. I laid in bed until 8 am. That's always a sign of a good day. My sweet husband prepared a big breakfast of home fries and scrambled eggs. I scooted out the door to meet all the new babies from one of my recent Childbirth Ed classes. Truly a divine Saturday morning.

Back home again we started packing up the crew for The Enchanted Forest. A friend told me it was a really great tradition for the kids. She mentioned something about animals popping out of the forest talking to the kids about their lifestyles and habitat. Music and food, too. I didn't know what to expect. We were in for an adventure.

We attempted to make our way out of the driveway, which was seemingly quite difficult without car keys. So ensued a thirty minute search for the key. Last anyone knew the baby had it. We searched high and low. Inside and out.

And then it magically fell to the ground from the hook where it normally resides. Not sure how that happened, but this clearly was the beginning of an afternoon of similar setbacks and oddities.

The forest walk was truly enchanting. The kids never failed to point out to the forest creatures, "You're not real. That's just a costume." Over and over and over again.

It was an enjoyable walk through the orange and red colored foliage. Crisp fall air mixed with the sounds of the Marimba band for a relaxing family afternoon. Relaxing, that is, until wet drops started falling from the sky. We quickly realized that a few key items were neglected in our desperate search for the car key.

Wet and cold with no jackets. Dang. You would think we'd have a handle on this by now. Preparedness is not our forte. Clearly.

We forgot the gluten-free dairy-free snacks as well. And baby missed his nap, to boot. Cold, wet, hungry and tired the elders of the group made the executive decision to make a bee-line for our favorite Mexican restaurant. There's nothing that spicy salsa can.'t fix.

And so we did. And so we spent an extra $22 on food this week. And so my perfect week of food budgeting went straight down the tubes. Damn.