Yesterday we went to the semi-ghost mall. It was lovely not to have to worry about crowds, or have a huge agenda. The kids could run fifty yards ahead and I didn't have to worry about losing them. There were play structures in the hallway. Bob was just so fascinated by the little "picture booths in the hallway." The toddlers thought they were peek-a-boo toys. I tried to entice our oldest into some early clothes shopping for school. He responded with appropriate pre-teen apathy. It was a day just to hang out with my kids, and see what there was to see.
What there was to see was a food court with a playground, a movie theater, an arcade, and an indoor playground/inflatable place from the kids point of view. From the mom's point of view, there were outlet stores, unique little crafty places, and a new purse on the horizon. So we compromised. I bought a brand new K-State purse with matching wallet in reverse color scheme, and they got to play for a couple of hours in the arcade and have lunch in the food court.
Lunch out with five kids in a food court can be an adventure of it's own. Thankfully, I had the right kid combo, one that included the one who's almost old enough to babysit. Unfortunately, he was being a spacey goofball. There was only one way in and out of the play area where I'd herded the children to wait while I ordered. His instructions were simple. No escapees allowed. About halfway through my order, I felt a little boa constrictor around my leg. Sure enough, it was Si guy. Where was big brother? Jumping off the bridge in a game of tag, even though he was almost a foot over the height limit for the play area. So much for watching his siblings because he was "too big" to play there. Who made those rules anyway? Are ten year olds really that big? Heck, even my six year old maxed out the height limit. What am I supposed to do when he's seven? Fortunately the parenting police were elsewhere, so my kids were allowed to play in peace.
I tried switching places with the big boy, and letting him order his own food. What does he come back with? About half a special ordered pizza. He said "I didn't know the pieces were going to be so big." That's okay. He shared. Somehow 3 extra large pieces of pizza, three grilled chicken breasts, an order of nuggets, a hamburger, two orders of fries and a large order of onion straws all disappeared, even with two kids only eating the chicken. (They got their fries at BK on the way home, so I guess that's four orders of fries.) What am I going to do when they're teens? Next time we're bringing lunch.
After lunch we find the "game hall." There are several businesses, all geared to the school aged child, ranging from a movie theater to an indoor gym with inflatables. Today, we hit the arcade. 500 FREE tickets with a $20 token purchase. Well, how long can it take six people to burn through 80 tokens? Well, when two of those people only want to play skee-ball, where they throw a ball, it rolls back, then mom rolls it in for the points,....it can take a while. So two hours and 725 tickets later, we are about ready to leave.
"Boys, you can pool your tickets and share a dart gun and a ball."
"Nah. How many are mine?"
Yeah. So they each have 100-150 tickets to spend. Just enough to get plastic bin stuff to be lost in the carpet and break the vacuum. Great. 3 disc shooters, 5 erasers, 10 army men, two sticky walk the wall men, two sticky lizards, two paddle balls, and 1/2 hour later we are ready to go. That is when they see "Monkey Business."
Can we go? Can we go?
Umm. Well...no.
"Why not?"
"We just spent two hours in an arcade. Mommy needs a rest." (Not to mention it's after three and neither tiny tot has had a nap, and Princess P is out of pants and lost her shoes. No I am NOT going through the whole mall again looking for them....)
Kids loaded in the car, slusheed up from BK, and headed out. Toddlers asleep. Mom has a new purse. It's what I'd call a successful day.
No comments:
Post a Comment