More shoe buying

5 kids means five new pairs of tennis shoes about every 9 months. It is a catch 22, because sometimes I will go with cheaper shoes, and then we just have to buy new ones sooner. And the whole tennis shoe shopping experience is not all that enjoyable with the kids anyway. There are the shoes that they want; vibrant colors, weird fasteners, and not a great fit. And then there are the shoes I want them to get; solid, dark colors, velcro for the non-ti-ers, good fit. So, in order to make their potential new shoes last longer this time, keeping me from having to shop for them sooner, I decided to go the good-shoe/even-if-more-expensive-shoe route. So, $125 dollars and one $20 dollar gift card later, we have 3 new pairs of tennis shoes. Also: -Right now Charlie and I are having a show-down. He wants to sit upon the dining table and throw his kettle corn on the floor for the dog, and I want him to get down. You see, originally, he was doing this, and I was ignoring him and acting like I didn't see it. If he knew I saw him and didn't stop him, then he would think this was allowed. But I was not ready to deal with it, so I just pretended not to see it. However, I turned around when I heard him stand up onto the table, and had to then address the situation. So, he is sitting there throwing the popcorn, and I say, "Charlie, get down off of the table." He says, "NO!" and laughs. I say, "Charlie, do you want me to be mean?" and he says, "yes." and grins so darn cute! I am way too soft. Eventually he got down on his own, and went running outside to chase Elaina and her friend. (I heard the tell-tale screeching)