Saturday, I had planned to go shopping with the "first Lady", #1, and #2. I got up early, got dressed and went to work hoping to get done in time to leave by 11 am. The goal was to go to Burnsville Shopping Mall to find clothes for a photo shoot the family is having on Wednesday. I made it home by 10:30, gathered up the kids, the "First Lady", the DVD Players, blankets, toys, snacks, (good grief you'd think we were driving to California). One hour later we arrived at the mall, and that's when it happened. The Kids saw the big purple sign outside, you parents know the one, the one with the giant "Mouse" titled.... Headache please! I didn't want to be hated for the rest of my life so I said we would go after we found clothes. "DAD that's like ten hours from now!" Yep, and I was going to use it as leverage the entire time. We went around the mall, upstairs, downstairs, in one store and out of another, finally the time had arrived. Both the kids are now at full attention and the only thing they can think of is complete toy ecstasy. Webster's dictionary should describe "Chaos" as "a Saturday afternoon at Chuck E Cheese's". We enter the building and get our matching glow-in-the-dark tattoos, then proceed to the counter to order the pizza and token-up. I give the kids ten coins apiece and send them packing, "this should last a while". Three minutes later #2 is at my side with four tickets and no tokens. Can I have more? For an hour and a half all I could do was deal out tokens and try not to get run over by hundreds of kids doing the exact same thing as my kids. When it was all said and done, the kids each got a toy and a new t-shirt to wear to school, the "First Lady" got to play some video games and get her fill of Cherry Coke, and I got to watch a big purple mouse teach my kids the chicken dance. We finally made it home, everyone exhausted and worn out from the long day, and as I put #1 to bed, she gave me a hug and said" Dad, I had the best day ever", if she only knew that I did too!
Sounds like a good day! Especially with four kids, we hate those kinds of trips. You plan them thinking, "We'll get what we need and then do something fun for the kids." Well, things usually deteriorate somewhere between the first bathroom break and the need to have a snack RIGHT NOW, so the parents aren't feeling too generous with the "fun things for the kids." In the end, everyone's tired and too much money was spent, and we vow to just buy the stuff without the kids next time and get a sitter. I'm glad you had a good day in the end.
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