The worst parenting decision I've made (thus far)

This weekend, I took the kids to Toronto to visit their cousin, Henry. It was a more self-serving trip than that though, because all three of my sisters were also in Toronto for a brief spell and I wanted to see them. When we woke up to a snow storm on Friday morning, I wavered on going, but it was supposed to clear by early afternoon and really, it wasn't THAT bad. So when the kids were ready for their afternoon naps, I buckled them into their car seats and we left.

My original ETA for the trip was about 4:00 p.m. The first leg wasn't bad; we got to London about 10 or 15 minutes later than we usually would, since I was driving slow. So I figured we should be there by 5:00. All was (relatively) well - traffic continued to slow as I drove further into the storm - but it wasn't until I was only 20 minutes (on a normal day) away from my destination that all hell broke loose. The highway essentially turned into a parking lot and there was no way out.

I am not completely new to this parenting thing and I was pretty well-prepared for the trip, having brought a whole shopping bag full of new library books, squeaky toys, sippy cups and dry snacks, but man. The whole trip, from start to finish, went from 3 hours to 6.5 hours, and I didn't blame the kids for screaming in the back seat one bit. I felt like screaming, too. I kept vowing that I was getting off the highway and taking them to the closest McDonalds, but we were parked at a standstill between exits. Thank God I had a tank full of gas.

At least we enjoyed the rest of our weekend. Liam and Henry did their now-ritual chase around the house, and Liam and Mallory both loved having a whole house full of new-to-them toys to play with. Liam and I slept in Henry's new bunk bed next to Mallory in a playpen, and she was thrilled to wake up and see us right next to her. We took a trip to Yorkdale and I found the pants I wanted, and my crowning achievement was scoring a pair of drapes for Mallory's new room from Pottery Barn Kids for $19.99 per panel (regularly $89.99) - the exact pattern I had already chosen for her. I think it was the universe's way of making up with me.