Jon & Kate Plus 8 - B-ball & More

B-ball & More
The Gosselin family goes to see the Harlem Globetrotters, with more in store than just the players' amazing basketball skills.

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Ooo, a family outing. Will Kate melt down? Will the kids behave? I can hardly wait to see what happens.

Kate tells us that the family's going to be on Oprah again. So it's part of their life now to pack and unpack. What I want to know if why they think it's okay to take Cara and Mady out of school all the time?

In order to get ready for Oprah, Kate wanted to get all the kids in for a haircut and go shopping for outfits so they didn't look like the "striped" circus. Um, whatever. They probably could have worn whatever and it wouldn't have mattered.

Kate's leaving to shop for their outfits and Jon explains that he was staying with his mom. Hannah and Alexis tell us that Jon's gone at "his mom's" house. I don't know any kid that doesn't refer to a parent's parent as their mom or dad. What happened to Grandma and Grandpa? Is the family *that* removed from their extended family. How sad.

Kate admits that they do have a *helper* but she isn't a *Nanny* and doesn't live there. She comes and goes as Kate needs. But she doesn't want to be on-camera. Or so Kate says. Although I'm wondering if Kate doesn't want her to become *famous*, too. Now that the kids are older, Kate finds it sad that the kids don't need her as much. But now we see that the kids are feeding the dogs all by themselves and clearly need some sort of supervision.

Off shopping at Gymboree, which is a crazy expensive place to shop at for 1 kid, let alone 8, Kate searches for outfits for the family to wear on Oprah. She also is working on getting them bathing suits. Because everyone shops for bathing suits when it's snowing outside.

After spending a fortune on kids clothing, Kate ran into Ann Taylor Loft, and seemed to purchase a lot. Kate admits that she finally likes shopping. She then tries to switch clothes with a sales lady to coordinate an outfit better. Who does that? Jon is happy that Kate's finally into clothes. Kate then decides they should dedicate an entire show to her fashion and have Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear, critique her. I never realized this show turned into Kate, minus Jon and 8. Jon tries to compliment Kate and she is just not having any of it. She just sits there, with a scowl on her face, tugging at her earring. The poor guy can't do anything right. But then again, after he's been accused of making out with college girls, he probably has a lot of complimenting to do.

Kate seems disappointed that Oprah doesn't want them to fly out and instead being on satellite. She claims it's because the kids don't *get* how to behave on camera and it's better for them to be on set. I think it's because Kate wants to get flown somewhere and treated like a celebrity. I have to admit that I like being treated that way, too. But I know that it's not realistic.

The family heads off to get their haircut and Hannah wants to get her hair cut short. Kate dragged the kids to their usual Kidz Cuts or whatever that promised free haircuts for the kids. At this point, Kate, I think you can afford to pay someone to cut their hair.

Once at the salon, Leah decides she doesn't want to get her pigtails out because "Mommy doesn't allow it." Kate lets her take them out for this occasion. Mady and Cara didn't really want their hair cut, but Kate insisted that they get their hair cut short and out of their eyes. Do you think they cover their eyes because they're embarressed or want to hide for a reason?

Hannah insisted on getting her hair cut and Kate said that she's not allowed. How come she won't let her kids get what they want? Isn't that important? Doesn't Hannah have headaches? Could it be that she has long hair that's pulling on her head? Apparently Hannah is to have long hair, Alexis can have medium length hair, and Leah can have short hair. What happened to each kid doing what they want? They are 4 1/2 now - old enough to know what they want.

Before the family heads off to the Harlem Globetrotter's game, Jon shows us that he's looking at a well known insurance company's website. If that isn't blatant advertising, then I have no idea what is.

The family want able to get courtside seats for this game. It looked like they were having fun at the game - the kids were laughing and enjoying themselves.

At one point during the game, Cara was asked to come out on the floor and perform a trick with the team. She seemed to have a really good time and it was cute to see her having a good time.

Of course, no Gosselin trip would be complete without a private-backstage meet and greet at half-time. Joel was so cute and asked the one player a million questions. The kids also seemed to love feeling the guy's muscles, too. Too funny. The family was then escorted to some kind of back room, where the entire team came out to meet them. Unfortunately, we got a back of the head shot of Kate's awful hair. What is she thinking?!?!

Each of the kids were gifted with their own personalized jersey, which is super cute. Jon wore his during the interview portion. They seemed happy with their presents and were mesmorized by the tricks the players were performing for them. Each of the kids got to spin a basketball on their finger, too.

On the interview couch, Jon and Kate seem extra distant. When Jon spoke, Kate seemed annoyed and didn't really pay attention to him. The media is reporting that they're having some trouble in their marriage and it's definitely evident. They barely interacted and it seemed like it was paining Kate to be there.

SassySarah's Space: I don't even know what was going on in this episode. The kids had a good time. But clearly something's going on with Kate and Jon. And quite frankly, I don't know if I want to watch it. One thumb down.