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Stay-cation 2013: Days 9-11

Day 9: Tuesday
Morning: Our monthly trip up to a local farm to pick up our milk. We share the driving with three other families, so that nobody has to make the trip every week. Isaac doesn't usually get to come with us.

Lunch: IKEA. Kids eat free on Tuesdays, so we often combine this with our milk trip, inasmuch as we're out and about anyway.

Post-nap and dinner: another children's ministry swim time and cookout at church. I took along this garlic parmesan orzo. Good old Taste of Home magazines.

Day 10: Wednesday
Morning: Story time at the library, this time with everyone involved.

Lunch: McDonald's, which happens to be directly across the street from the library. As such, it is very, very hard for me not to make this a weekly habit! (As healthy as we generally eat at home, I still have a soft spot for fast food. I keep hoping I'll outgrow it, but it hasn't happened yet.) Anyway, last time we went -- many weeks ago -- they'd accidentally made an extra milkshake, and the manager brought it to our table. Since then, Levi asks at least once a week if we can go to McDonald's for a milkshake. I can't seem to convince him that even if we DID go, we wouldn't be buying a milkshake for lunch!

Dinner: Pizza Tower in Mason. Isaac remembers visiting this place on school trips as a kid, but hasn't been since then. Luckily for us, they still offer their kids' deal: two kids eat free (a personal pan pizza!) with each adult $5 purchase (on Wednesdays), AND the kids get a ball of pizza dough to play with at the table. That was quite a hit (much more than playdough ever is at home, incidentally).

Putting together a snowman.

You'd never know from most pictures that Silas is by far our silliest child.

Look at my pizza dough!

Isaac's lion. I mean Sphinx. I mean lion.

Mommy's handiwork.

I have to say, though, that a place like that really sets kids up for obedience failure. There's just no way you can expect them to sit and behave in a place with two different cartoons blaring, an area with white boards and magnetic letters to fight over, and uncooked pizza dough to tempt hungry tummies. The deal was good, and the food was decent, but I don't think we'll probably make it a weekly occasion or anything. :)

Day 11: Thursday
I had no plans to leave the house at all on Thursday, another lazy day at home, but by 4:30pm the kids were going absolutely nuts and I was completely out of ideas for entertaining them. Going out to dinner seemed like too much work, making dinner at home seemed like too much work, and finally I just looked at Isaac and said (whined), "can't we just drop them off with your mom and go out to dinner ourselves?" He didn't hesitate for a second -- "Of course we can" -- and within ten minutes, the call had been made, the kids loaded up, and we were en route to Oma's house. All three of them refused to eat their spaghetti (which they always eat), but I was busy scarfing down fettucine alfredo at Olive Garden (which I haven't gotten in years, the calorie count being so high, but who cares when you're 22 weeks pregnant?!) and didn't care. I just wanted an hour of relative silence, and I got it. Many, many thanks, Oma!!

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