I'm very lucky to have kids that don't mind finding entertainment in the mundane. A trip to the grocery store, eating inside of the Wendy's building, Popsicles on the deck, a trip to the library, going inside the bank, a single balloon, getting the mail, the miniature grocery cart at Smith's. It doesn't take much. On the occasional day where we don't leave the house, they seem thrilled to be home all day, just moving from room to room with their wrestling and destruction. I know that they don't need excessive entertainment, but I still occasionally get that feeling (thanks a lot Facebook) that I'm not taking them out to do enough fun stuff.
Yesterday was one of those days. I thought, "to hell with it, we're doing something fun today and I don't care how much it costs'!" So I grabbed some juice boxes, forced the kids to pee and we hit the road looking for fun. I drove 35 minutes south and paid way too much money to park at Discovery Gateway Children's museum. The kids were thrilled with me. We went inside and walked up to the desk to pay our entrance fee and there I was met with a horrible decision for a gal like myself. Do I pay $8.50 per person today or do I blow $95 and buy a year long membership that includes 4 guest passes? I hate these situations. I was prepared to drop $25.00, but now I'm forced to decide if I love this place enough to invest in a pass. It seems like a smart financial choice to opt for the year long pass, but what if we don't end up using it? Did I mention that I hate kid specific places, because they are always disgusting, germ filled and chalk full of weirdos? Well I do. I only go because I think my kids will like it and there's air conditioning ( my hair looked really great yesterday morning and I didn't want to do the sweaty meltdown thing). So what happens next can only be the result of "long line behind me panic", because I bought a year long membership. The only upside of this dumb decision is that I put it on my Old Navy card and I'll end up with some free clothes as a result of this charge. I put everything on that card, Emergency room visits, C-sections, any bill that will accept payment by card really. Free clothes is a reward that I really respond to. I figure I have to pay for all that crap anyway, so why not rack up some rewards (free jeans anyone?) while I'm at it?
So we enter the magical children's museum and it's not quite as great as I remember it being 3 years ago. It looked sort of picked over and dirty. Oh well, my kids had a good time. Sadly, they spent the majority of their visit in the kid sized mock grocery store. They filled their little shopping carts full of sensible foods and pretended to pay the child cashier for their purchases. I can't be certain, but I think I overheard Sasha ask the child cashier if she could use a pretend coupon. Mother was proud. They did this mock shopping so many times that I was forced to make a grown up friend, just to pass the time. I should publicly thank the preppy kids nanny for the great conversation. You're living the dream girl, taking care of kids from 9 to 5 AND getting paid for it AND getting your nights to yourself! It will never get better than that.
Once mommy was all germed out, we thoroughly washed our hands (because Dave will want to know that we did) and we hit the car for some Justin Bieber tunes and chilled juice boxes. As soon as we got home the girls ran to their rooms and put on their swim suits. I then sat on a lawn chair and sprayed them with the hose for an hour while they ran all over the yard laughing and squealing with joy! Part of our bedtime routine includes me asking them to name what part of their day they are most thankful for or enjoyed the most. They both answered the same way. Getting sprayed with the hose of course! I'm feeling sort of stupid for driving all the way to Salt Lake to throw away $95.00 plus gas......I could have told you yesterday morning that the hose would be the highlight. Lesson learned.
P.S. Is it pathetic that I chose not to mention any of this to my husband last night? He would think I was out of my mind crazy to blow $100 on the Children's museum, and frankly...........I don't want to hear it.
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