Shoes? What shoes?

My husband is traveling for his new job and I am alone all week with the boys. I think I have built this week up in my head to be really challenging and hard. So I was feeling pretty good this morning when I got all the kids in the car and off to our church's mom's group on time. I was thrown a little when the place where I usually park had the sidewalk closed so I had to turn toward the church and face a really crowded church parking lot with probably no spaces. To my delight, there was one right on the street next to the parking lot so there would be very little walking to get to the boys' classrooms. We had made it on time, with no screaming on my part and very little from the kids. 

But then my middle son uttered this little sentence, "Mommy, where are my crocs?" 

I had told my now 5 year old big boy to put on his shoes and get in the car and buckle up. He asked if he could wear his crocs to church and I said yes. When I went out to the car, after having to remind his big brother multiple times to get his shoes on and get in the van, there was my 5 year old all buckled and ready to go. He was so proud of himself. So I drive off to church blissfully unaware that he was sitting in his car seat, all buckled up and ready to go, without any shoes. 

So many thoughts flooded my mind as I stood there getting the other boys out of the car all ready to head into the church, drop them off at their classes, and go sit down with my small group. 

Do you think the childcare workers would notice or care if he did not have shoes? They probably would not care but I figured there was some safety issue there and probably a licensing or some other weird rule involved there. 

Do I drive the 20 minutes back home to find the shoes he could not find before he left? If we drive home, will we make it back into the car and back to church. Or will I lose steam and energy and just give up when I get there.

Heck he needs new crocs anyway and I am pretty sure Nordstroms is opening soon and a lot closer. So now my middle son has brand new crocs and his brothers have Nordstroms balloons.