Chuck E Cheese

Why going to Chuck E Cheese at 9:30 am is a great idea~

*Your child will take a 3 hour nap

*No one else is there so your toddler can run wild and you don't have to worry about them being run over by big kids or being snatched up

*The baby you bring can roll around the floor on a blanket and if he so chooses he can sleep on the floor without being stepped on

*The workers check the machines every day to see if they're working properly so there are a lot of free tickets hanging out of the machines. If your child is like mine you will find that they enjoy ripping the tickets out of the machine and you will have more than you can imagine by the end of the day

*You will get to play some of the games while your child dances crazily to the weird background music

We went to Chuck E Cheese with my friend Tina and her toddler Michaela. Rosalee pretty much hated all of the rides but loved playing the games with balls. A few times she would grab the ball and run off so I had to chase her down and get them back. I thought we'd only be there for 45 minutes but we ended up staying for just shy of 2 hours! The baby I watch enjoy rolling around the floor looking at the lights and ended up taking a short nap. It was a fun time and $10 dollars well spent!

The picture of Rosalee was taken the third time I put her on the ride. The first two times she cried the whole time... But at least Michaela enjoyed herself!

Rosalee liked this game because it was a giant bulldog head and you had to shoot balls into the mouth to win tickets. Rosalee kept saying, "eat Trouble eat" and laughing. We seriously played this game 7 times!

A friend of mine criticized me for not taking pictures with me in them. I'm usually the one with Rosalee so there isn't anyone to take a picture of me. Tina was nice enough to take some pictures of me so I can show off the ever growing Zeke.

After playing I took the kids to the grocery store and realized that I won't be shopping for several years to come. The kids took up more room in the cart than the food and they took turns fussing or grabbing at random items. People gave me the weirdest looks being pregnant pushing a cart full of little ones. But the best part came at the end of my shopping experience. I was feeling EXHAUSTED and starving and without having to say a word a nice man brought an extra cart over to me. He started loading my groceries into the cart and then proceeded to follow me to the car. While I loaded the kids into car seats he loaded the food into the trunk. It wasn't until I thanked him and said good-bye that I realized he was the co-manager of the store. (Seriously the guy could have been a hobo and I would have excepted the help!) So for those of you Indiana people reading this- SHOP AT MARSH! :)

Later that day the blessing poured in. Lately I've been feeling so burdened and upset that I just needed a day where things went better than planned. First the kids slept for 3 hours which meant I got to eat a nice lunch, clean the living room, and pack a box. I even got to work on some of my crafts I've been putting off because of my never ending to-do list. The next great thing was I decided to go shopping at a discount store (Gordman's) because I had some cash and a coupon. (Okay, so I wanted some shorts or capris for our trip to Hawaii but I want to sound frugal here!!) On the way there I saw a "going out of business" sign on the Sportsman Warehouse. I thought, "hey Jesse would like some new fishing stuff" and decided to go. It was the last day for the store so everything was 80-90% off. I decided to get Jesse some jeans, a belt, and some fancy wading/fishing boots. He's wanted the boots but they cost $60ish dollars so I figured now would be a good time to get them. In my head I figured my total would be around $25 and I had $28 in my wallet so it worked out. At the register the saleswoman rang me up and then hit a button. The magic button which took an additional 75% off of my total sale. So I got 2 Carthart jeans, a belt, and some $60 fishing boots for $6.89. I about fell over and actually asked her if the total was correct. Next I went to the original store I wanted to go to and found some toddler summer pajamas on sale. Rosalee also found some Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse (her two obsessions) books for $2.99. At the end of my shopping experience I still had $1.75 left and I got a lot more than two pairs of maternity shorts/capris!

When I got home Jesse was VERY excited about what I got him. When I told him how I didn't get anything for myself he laughed at me. According to him I do that a lot... He said the next time I sell some of his knives or our furniture I could go shopping. Two and a half hours later our friend came over and bought several of Jesse's knives for $47! Woo hoo mama gets a new swimsuit and some shorts this weekend!!!