Butterpup and the Girly Girls – Part 2

 

In Part 2 of the continuing saga of Girls Week, I find out that Annie is not a Barbie girl; a dog gets a new name; and we discover we have TWO Elsas.

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Our next day began with the early risers, Addy and Ally, rubbing the sleep from their eyes as they made their way into the living room.  Annie set them up with cartoons on Pa’s new TV.

My lovely wife rarely lets her wishes be known because her nature is to give precedence to the grandkids’ wants over her own.  As she read off the names of the cartoons on the various channels, I noticed that she had missed one so, assuming it was an oversight on Annie’s part and that the girls would like the program, I chimed in, “Barbie.  You skipped Barbie.”

As if the daggers shooting from the eyes of my sweet, loving wife didn’t make her thoughts clear, she growled/whispered, “I DON’T like BARBIE.”

I don’t know whether the girls heard her comment or just didn’t care.  “Barbie!  Barbie!” they chimed.

I spoke with supplication in my voice, “Girly girls love Barbie.”  Still not happy, Annie nodded anyway.

Barbie it was, and the Matthews girls would be the Girly Girls for the rest of the week, and maybe the rest of their lives.

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It wasn’t long before Emma and Pfiefer wandered out of their bedroom, followed by Harper.  The older four girls might have come out only half-awake, but little Harper virtually exploded when she saw her favorite member of the family.

“Butterpup!  Butterpup!” she squealed.  The toddler enthusiastically hugged the friendly dog, then followed her to where she tried to hide and hugged her some more.  Despite the girl’s squeals of love, her hugs had taken a form more closely resembling strangulation than love.

Buttercup’s patience wore thin and she made her way to the door, half-dragging Harper with her.  The pup looked at me with eyes that clearly said, “Ple-e-ease let me OUT!”  I understood.

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Our agenda included our past due trip to the Bootheel Youth Museum, which was open today.

The BYM, as it is known to everyone in the area, is a marvel of science, nature, and history.  Educational opportunities abound for people who love to explain what all the activities mean and what all the displays represent.

People like me.

My sons will tell you of all the times I’ve stopped what they were doing so that I could explain how something works, what its history is, or why it looks the way it does.

The girls didn’t have time for all that.  They rushed about, sliding down the slides, trying to blow bubbles, banging this and crashing that.  They seemed eager to try everything out and find out what it did but they could care less why it does it.

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Although we were able to avoid any outright fisticuffs during the 2018 version of Girls Week, I won’t say we didn’t come close.  Such was the case during our visit to the tiny theater in the BYM, where kids can stand in front of a curtain, facing an audience, and sing, dance, or even quote Shakespeare I suppose.  Our performers chose to dance and sing.  Unfortunately two of them both wanted to be Elsa, from the movie Frozen.

Ally yelled at Pfiefer, “I said I’m Elsa!”

Not knowing who had chosen the character first, I tried to intercede, “There can be two Elsas.”

Even I didn’t think it was the perfect solution but Pfiefer took the suggestion.  She shouted, “There can be two Elsa’s!”

“No, I said I’m Elsa!”

The argument finally ended with Ally storming off, only to return and continue her performance.

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After a couple hours that seemed like days, at least to the adults, we left to get some lunch at McDonalds.  Once there we only had to explain to the youngsters a few dozen time that the Playplace was under construction and would be a lot more fun when work was completed…in about a month…about three weeks after the girls left us.

Patience may be a virtue but it’s not a common one among preschoolers.  The lack of a Playplace will go down in the history of bad experiences during Girls Week.  At least the need to get the girls fed didn’t have to compete with their desire to play.  .  Somehow we still managed to finish the meal with uneaten Gogurt, chicken nuggets, French fries, fruit, and chocolate milk.

Some of it may still be hiding in corners of our refrigerator.  Yes, the dogs and chickens got to eat plenty of it.

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The Girly Girls finished out the day with another long, cool swim, accompanied by lots of splashing, diving, and fun.  I built a fire in the fire pit and we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows, toasted S’mores and enjoyed a meal that may have been low in nutrition but was high in fun.  The fact that one of the girls liked her hotdogs without hotdogs (just a bun with ketchup) and another wanted her S’mores raw, with not even the marshmallow toasted, just added to the good times.

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Back to the air conditioned comfort of our house and another round of Barbie as one more day of Girls Week wound down.  Andy and Madison were back to retrieve their daughter and would leave the following morning, and we would have to continue our adventure without our sweet Harper.

 

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(Below)  A short video I made celebrating some of the events mentioned in this post.