American Housewife - Field Trippin' - Review: "Oh Mickey, You're so Fine"

Katie contends with finding a work-life balance this week, while Greg contends with two lying teenagers!

Katie is at school when she finds herself dodging the principal's request of chaperoning a field trip. Usually, she comes up with some outrageous lie (malaria, hip replacement, etc), but this time she realizes that she has an actual excuse. She has work! At home that night, Katie sits down to play with Anna-Kat and realizes that she's beginning to lose touch with her. She doesn't even know the names of most of her toy ponies! In bed, Katie talks to Greg about it, who mentions that not only does he know the names of the ponies, but he's chaperoning the field trip tomorrow. Katie starts to wonder if she's spending too much time working.

The next morning, Katie and Greg get ready to head out when they're met with a "sick" Taylor, which isn't very surprising. She fakes sick every chance she gets. What is surprising is that Oliver is apparently "sick" as well. Oliver never misses school, so they're convinced they must actually be sick. (Besides, they did drink the expired smoothie, even if it was in the buffer zone!) Taylor and Oliver assure Katie and Greg they can take care of each other and the two leave for the day. And just like that - their plan to skip school and go to the amusement park with Trip and Cooper seems to be working!

At "second breakfast," Katie talks to Doris and Angela about becoming distant from Anna-Kat, and realizes that maybe chaperoning the field trip is the way to reconnect with her. She's only got ten minutes before the bus leaves, so she speeds over to the school, parks her car right in front of the bus, and literally throws Greg off of it! And they're off to the farm. Katie tries to start up one of her and Anna-Kat's favorite activities - a bus sing-a-long, only to discover that Anna-Kat's not as fond of belting out 80s pop ballads in front of her whole class as she once was. Once at the farm, Katie starts playing one of Anna-Kat's old favorite games, "First Day on Earth," where they pretend like it's their first day on earth and ask stupid questions. And just like with the bus sing-a-long, Anna-Kat isn't interested. In fact, she's downright embarrassed.

With Katie on the field trip, Greg heads home to take care of a "sick" Oliver and Taylor, who are just about to leave for the amusement park. They quickly stash Trip and Cooper and throw their pajamas back on, hoping to fool Greg and convince him to leave. But Greg's quite insistent on staying home and taking care of them, so much so that he even gets "advice" from his doctor friend about how to flush the toxins out of their systems. That advice - sweat it out and coat themselves with homemade "salve" (turmeric, garlic, and mustard)! So, Greg sticks the two in the bathroom with the shower running and their winter coats on and whips up a batch of "salve."

At the farm, Katie calls Greg to tell him about how bad things are going with Anna-Kat and Greg says that maybe she's trying too hard. After-all, she knows what Anna-Kat likes. This gives Katie an idea - a really bad one. She lets Beverly the skittish pony out of her coral and marches her over to Anna-Kat and her friends, determined to make Anna-Kat's make-believe pony game come to life. Of course, Anna-Kat is humiliated, and the principal and farm owner are terrified to see Beverly out of her coral. Ignoring the warnings of the two of them, Katie gives Beverly a nice firm pat on the rear and off she goes - taking the gazebo Katie's tied her to with her!

They fan out to search for Beverly and when Katie says that she came on the field trip because she felt bad about working so much, Anna-Kat says Katie is just trying to force having fun with her. Katie responds that she's just trying to do things she likes. Anna-Kat says that she likes different stuff now, and even though she still likes a few of the same things, like playing ponies, she'd prefer her friends not know about it, as it would be embarrassing. Beverly is finally found, and is safely "back in her corral sleeping under four weighted blankets."

At home, Greg continues the "healing process" by having the kids stick scallions in their ears. As they begrudgingly comply, he takes a picture of them and finally reveals his trick. Greg knows their whole game! When he came home, he found Trip and Cooper and got the whole story out of them. Everything he's done since then has just been to teach them a lesson about taking advantage of the "nice parent." He says if they ever try anything similar again, he will post the picture he took of them all over town!

On the way home from the field-trip, Anna-Kat and Katie sing Mickey, proving Anna-Kat hasn't completely changed. Anna-Kat tells Katie that she can chaperone another field trip, as long as she behaves. That's not gonna be a problem though, as Katie' been banned from ever going on a field trip again!

Random Thoughts:
-Principal Ablin's blazer plus overalls combo was hilarious, as was his attempt at "revenge" via ding-dong-ditching at the end.

-Guess I'm not the only one who's been raised to think that expiration dates are a "suggestion!"

-The funniest line goes to Katie after Anna-Kat talks about her new favorite fruits. "Gotta love Westport. The closet I got to fresh fruit as a kid was Wild Cherry cough-drops."

What did you think of Katie's attempts to bond with Anna-Kat? Will Taylor and Oliver ever try to skip again? Let me know below!