Last night was not a fun night (van stuck on cottage row)

So yesterday evening after Dave got off work, he said he had to go over to the river house and prep the house for the house movers. That involved removing all three wooden stair cases that are attached (two on the outside, one in the basement) and take down the garage door. I agreed to take the kids to Island Park while he worked. I fed them PBJs for a fast supper and we were off. I let the kids play at the park for a long time, it was quite windy outside and was surprised they were not affected by the gusting wind. I think they were just ecstatic to BE outside and playing somewhere "new" for once. They've been to this park before, but it was close to a year ago. The ground was all sandy from the recent flood, making a very soft walking surface. Violet must have had a streak of bravery at this park. She was climbing up and down slides that were very high, slid her body skillfully down a pole that was very tall, and then proceeded to JUMP off of the playground equipment from way too high for her age (it was close to 6 feet tall I think, right by my head). She landed well, but fell quickly and her knee jammed into her lower cheek upon landing, which looked pretty painful. At first she didn't know how to react until the sting of pain settled in. I held her while she cried for a long time. A bruise quickly developed, and I told her she could have some medicine before going to bed. A little ibuprofen might help. About 2 hours later, it started to get dark, I gave Dave a call on his cell and asked him how the progress was going. He had two stair cases down, 1 to go, and the garage door. He asked me to come by and take a look, so I got the kids packed back in the car and headed for the river house. I didn't let them out of the car - it was just too messy and sandy. I walked around looking at the prep work, amazed this was all happening. Dave had the truck with him there so I decided to head back and get the kids to bed since they were tuckered out from the windy park playing and were whining and acting very tired. It was after 8 pm after all. So I turned the familiar circle around the neighbor's driveway like I always used to do, and all of a sudden, the van collapsed in a heap of sand. I was totally stuck. The flood brought up a ton of sand and the neighbor moved all of it into his driveway in an attempt to "build it up" higher. He did have plans to cover it with gravel, he just hadn't done it yet. It was like a booby-trap! I tried backing out, but all the tires did were spin. Frustrating! Violet immediately freaked out, she knew we were stuck and thought we were never going to get out and never get home. Calvin picked up on her fear and started crying too. I called Dave over, who brought a shovel, but it didn't help. He found a rope on the neighbor's pontoon boat and tried towing me out with the truck, but all the rope did was snap and break. We were both so tired...but we knew what had to happen...a trip to the store. Dave stayed at the river house because he had to finish tearing down the garage door. I put the kids in the truck and drove to Farm and Fleet at 8:30 pm to get a new anchor rope for the neighbor and a tow strap. Nobody was in the store to help me. I had to fish out an employee from a different department to show me where the tow straps were, and when he did, he just left me there to figure out what to get...there seemed to be a million strap options, I didn't know what to get. So I had to go dig out another employee to help me. 30 minutes later, I found the two items I needed, and drove back to the river house. By this time it was close to 9:30. Dave hooked up the van and the truck with the tow strap, and pulled me out with ease. Praise the Lord! I was praying the whole time since the moment I got stuck to grant me patience and calmness knowing from that moment the rest of the night could be stressful...and He did. Violet was scared but remained calm and tried her best to keep Calvin happy, Calvin was overtired but didn't scream like he usually does. Once we got free of the sand pit, Dave had finished with the house, and we both headed out. On the way out of Cottage Row Rd, he pulled over and said "Hey, you wanna go to 4 Queens?" I just smiled and said "Might as well..." So the 4 of us went to get ice cream at 10 pm. Violet perked up immediately when she heard ice cream. She said she wanted a cone instead of a cup this time, and really wanted pink ice cream. She got her wish, and a little pink ice cream cone she got. Calvin ate a little cup of chocolate ice cream. All she wanted was the cone though, and immediately took a bite right out of the bottom of the cone. Dave ate her ice cream quick and she ate the cone. Once we got home, it was "mission-get-these-kids-to-bed-as-soon-as-possible"...so we did...and by 11 pm, they were sleeping. Ughh...what a night. Last nights don't make for the best mornings. And of course, she was awake at 7 am (and had woken Dave up at 5 am because of a nightmare involving shots and doctors). Violet had an unusually horrible day, spent most of her morning in time-out and getting spankings for bad behavior. I guess she's just a normal kid who needs a decent night's sleep to function. Right now both kids are sleeping, and I hope they catch up on sleep by taking loooong naps.