The Friday I Spoiled My Kids

I don't know what possessed me yesterday. I woke up in a very strange mood and decided to go with it.

It has been a very good week with Noah. That little grump that was here all last week went away and my sweet little boy returned. He was so good all this week. There are only four days of school left for him and they are all pretty much fluff days, which is what inspired my naughtiness yesterday. Here it goes...

The school day was supposed to hold a huge number of activities that would NOT have been good for Noah. He had stressed about the Hot Dog School cook-out ALL WEEK. He literally panicked about it at one point...he hates hot dogs. So I decided to keep him home and go do something fun instead.

With our tax refund, I had purchased a year membership to the Children's Museum. We love this place! The boys were so excited when he woke up and I gave Noah the choice; school or children's museum. I figure once he's in first grade, cutting school for a day will not be an option so this was the last chance.

They ate breakfast and got dressed in record time and we headed out. It was a major field trip day and the museum was PACKED. But the boys both still found fun things to do. Noah sat for 25 minutes with this plastic construction set putting screws together in different configurations. I loved watching him.



















Meanwhile, Aaron just hung around.



















They also spent A LOT of time trying to fix plumbing.














After a couple of hours, every one was getting hungry and we headed out. No fights about leaving...amazing!

We had a coupon for Noodles and decided to do that for lunch. I can't believe how good Noah is at using the chopsticks and it is fun watching Aaron try.

We got home for quiet time. Aaron feel to sleep pretty quickly and after about 45 minutes, I let Noah get up to watch Scooby Doo Scary Stories.

When Aaron got up, we decided to check out a few garage sales on the street. Noah had a few quarters left over from vacation so I told him he could bring them. After going to a couple of sales and not finding anything he would want, we decided to walk over a block to the church where there is a carnival for the weekend and look at the rides.

Along the way, an ICE CREAM TRUCK drove by. Guess what mom did? Oh yeah, we had ice cream for snack.

After dinner, Steve and I had decided that for the first time, we would actually let them go on a few rides at the carnival. Usually, we can't justify the money but we had A TON of quarters left over from the garage sale. So off we went.

They told us that Aaron could go on the tilt-a-whirl as long as I went with him. Noah keeps calling it a "turbo war". Apparently that is what it sounds like to a five year old.

I think this might be our Christmas card picture this year.














Aaron was actually TALL ENOUGH to go on the flying saucer ride so they both did that














and then Aaron rode his first solo carnival ride.














As we were leaving, we ran into our neighbors who have a little boy Noah's exact age. We had three tickets left but I wasn't going to let the boys use them because there wasn't enough for both boys to ride. But Nikki (my neighbor) and Bradley (Noah's friend) were going on a ride and invited Noah to go with them, which I agreed to since Aaron was too short to ride it anyway.














As we were leaving, there was a little quarter carnival put on by the church that the boys wanted to visit. I figured that at this point we have blown through so much money, what is two more dollars. The duck pond got them both a little prize (I don't have a picture of Aaron's because he was in the bathroom at the time.



















Daddy got his elephant ear














And we were finally on the way home.

Of course, it was after bedtime when we got home. But did I put the boys to bed? Of course not, we stayed up and colored for another half hour before we finally put their PJ's on and sent them to bed.

I was exhausted from all of the fun, but then I read this post from Deb, and decided that we HAD to go out. So I called her, picked her up, and we got out for some girl talk. I think it did us both some good.

So, yes, I SPOILED my children beyond all spoiling yesterday. The nice thing is, I can have a day like this, and the boys will not EXPECT it again. They just appreciated it. I am lucky that they see special times for what they are. And I am left with yet another memory of a fun day with my boys.