This week is Spring Break and Gabi and Jeremy are out of school. With Jeremy visiting his dad in Connecticut, Ryan and I had to take the 2 youngest ones around with us as we did our errands.
We asked the kids if they wanted to go bye-bye and go eat. Of course, they were all for that. We decided to eat at the restaurant next to Big O' Tires since we needed to have our oil changed and tire repaired (darn nail). That way we could eat while they worked on our van. We pulled up into Big O' and Ryan got out first. Gabi looked up and said in a very concerned and serious voice, "I don't want to eat a tire!" It took me a moment to stop laughing, but I finally pointed at the restaurant next door and said, "That is where we are eating." Still dissatisfied she said, "I don't want it." So, I responded with, "Then I guess we will just have to eat a tire, then." Suddenly, the restaurant looked more appealing to her. Lunch went well without any major issues and the van was ready before we were even done. Off to the next errand... grocery shopping!
We approached this idea with a plan. You see our local Meijer's has those
TV Karts that you can rent for a dollar. Our kids will quietly sit inside while watching Barney, and we can do our grocery shopping! We are such geniuses! Only we weren't counting on the fact that it would stop mid Barney show just as we get to the back of the store to start our shopping. We only made it through one aisle! Plus the front tire was lopsided making it hard to maneuver. Argh! I managed to talk Ryan into taking it back up front and getting a new one. Of course, the next one (a Bob The Builder model) happened to have a metal door in the back fall open just after we got the kids in and the groceries we had switched over. The ladies at customer service had no idea how to fix this. So finally we settled with a Thomas The Tank Engine TV Kart! This one steered much better, too! The kids were in and groceries were switched over once again! Finally! Let's get this shopping done! Wrong! This one died before we could even make it back to the aisles.
That's it! I am through! We grabbed a good ol' ordinary shopping cart switched the groceries over yet again. We put Preston in the front and instructed Gabi to hold on to the cart. Sheesh! Yeah right, who are we kidding? Gabi started running up and down the aisles like she had never been in a grocery store before. Preston would throw out of the cart any groceries he could get a hold of. Thank God, I didn't have anything breakable within his reach! Gabi was doing some shopping of her own as well. Every time I turned around their were more items in the cart than I put there. I put those things back, and did allow her a couple things that she did ask for first.
The checkout line was just as difficult as our shopping experience. We always opt for the lines where we can self check out. Usually this is a faster process for us, but today we should have opted for a line with a cashier. Gabi managed to get a hold of one of those shopping items conveniently placed at checkout for little kids to pester their parents with and scan it to our bill before we realized what happened. Ryan didn't want to waste the time of having the cashier come over and remove it from our bill, so we took it home. However, I can assure you a certain little girl will not be having that little box of Golfish crackers! Eventually, Gabi got more under control and started handing me the items from our cart for me to scan. This is when Preston took his opportunity to act up, again. He kept reaching over to the belt that was carrying our groceries to Ryan who was bagging them. The problem with this is that this belt weighs the groceries to make sure that you are not trying to steal anything by slipping it on the belt without scanning it first. So Preston's hands pushing on it kept making the checkout stop and say, "unexpected item on belt." I wanted to say back to the register, "Well then you don't know my kids because it's not all that unexpected!"
But it is over and we did eventually get all of our errands done. Of course we swore we were never taking them shopping again!
We asked the kids if they wanted to go bye-bye and go eat. Of course, they were all for that. We decided to eat at the restaurant next to Big O' Tires since we needed to have our oil changed and tire repaired (darn nail). That way we could eat while they worked on our van. We pulled up into Big O' and Ryan got out first. Gabi looked up and said in a very concerned and serious voice, "I don't want to eat a tire!" It took me a moment to stop laughing, but I finally pointed at the restaurant next door and said, "That is where we are eating." Still dissatisfied she said, "I don't want it." So, I responded with, "Then I guess we will just have to eat a tire, then." Suddenly, the restaurant looked more appealing to her. Lunch went well without any major issues and the van was ready before we were even done. Off to the next errand... grocery shopping!
We approached this idea with a plan. You see our local Meijer's has those TV Karts that you can rent for a dollar. Our kids will quietly sit inside while watching Barney, and we can do our grocery shopping! We are such geniuses! Only we weren't counting on the fact that it would stop mid Barney show just as we get to the back of the store to start our shopping. We only made it through one aisle! Plus the front tire was lopsided making it hard to maneuver. Argh! I managed to talk Ryan into taking it back up front and getting a new one. Of course, the next one (a Bob The Builder model) happened to have a metal door in the back fall open just after we got the kids in and the groceries we had switched over. The ladies at customer service had no idea how to fix this. So finally we settled with a Thomas The Tank Engine TV Kart! This one steered much better, too! The kids were in and groceries were switched over once again! Finally! Let's get this shopping done! Wrong! This one died before we could even make it back to the aisles.
That's it! I am through! We grabbed a good ol' ordinary shopping cart switched the groceries over yet again. We put Preston in the front and instructed Gabi to hold on to the cart. Sheesh! Yeah right, who are we kidding? Gabi started running up and down the aisles like she had never been in a grocery store before. Preston would throw out of the cart any groceries he could get a hold of. Thank God, I didn't have anything breakable within his reach! Gabi was doing some shopping of her own as well. Every time I turned around their were more items in the cart than I put there. I put those things back, and did allow her a couple things that she did ask for first.
The checkout line was just as difficult as our shopping experience. We always opt for the lines where we can self check out. Usually this is a faster process for us, but today we should have opted for a line with a cashier. Gabi managed to get a hold of one of those shopping items conveniently placed at checkout for little kids to pester their parents with and scan it to our bill before we realized what happened. Ryan didn't want to waste the time of having the cashier come over and remove it from our bill, so we took it home. However, I can assure you a certain little girl will not be having that little box of Golfish crackers! Eventually, Gabi got more under control and started handing me the items from our cart for me to scan. This is when Preston took his opportunity to act up, again. He kept reaching over to the belt that was carrying our groceries to Ryan who was bagging them. The problem with this is that this belt weighs the groceries to make sure that you are not trying to steal anything by slipping it on the belt without scanning it first. So Preston's hands pushing on it kept making the checkout stop and say, "unexpected item on belt." I wanted to say back to the register, "Well then you don't know my kids because it's not all that unexpected!"
But it is over and we did eventually get all of our errands done. Of course we swore we were never taking them shopping again!