The Switch Up

It’s funny, I never wanted a big family, but life had other ideas in the form of my brother, who had five kids and then lost his job and came to live with us for a while. I already had one son and two dogs, so adding in five kids and my brother’s three dogs meant we were suddenly swimming in warm bodies in our modest house. I didn’t mind; I love my brother. But it was a challenge. And he inspired me to buy a bunch of clear bags from the Clear Bag Store after one unfortunate holiday we now refer to in the family archives as The Switch Up.

My brother was a bit depressed, as you can imagine, and the kids were unhappy as well, so we had a brilliant idea of heading out to a park one day with all the kids and the dogs, just to have a relaxing day of burgers, sodas, and fun. Everyone cheered up at the thought, and I carefully packed up tote bags for everyone, including a towel, a lunch, a snack, and other essentials. I even packed up one for the dogs so they would be taken care of. We packed ourselves into the cars and took off.

The day was a smashing success from the start. Songs were sung, pranks were played – and that was just in the car on the way over. At our destination everyone ran off in different directions – the swings, the field, the lake, the basketball courts, and I was handing out the totes like a madwoman. Finally it was just my brother and I and the tote I’d packed for us.

Except, when I opened our tote for the delicious lunch I’d made, it was filled with dog biscuits and flea medicine.

We spent the rest of the day hunting down our tote, by which time the children had eaten our lunch and their lunch, and my brother and I had to go find a snack counter for some dubious edibles. So I went online and found the incredible clear tote bags at The Clear Bag Store  in order to avoid this sort of mix up going forward. After all, my brother’s family would be with us for a while, and even after he got back on his feet there would be family trips galore!

Everyone got their own Medium Tote Bag with a pocket on the front for a picture and were told they could put any picture they wanted to mark the bag as theirs for future trips. The kids all loved that part.

The dogs? The dogs got their own tote, too, marked clearly with a paw print. Because I swore from that day forward I would never eat dog biscuits for lunch again.