Our Afternoon Out

In case you have been wondering if we have perfect kids (and I hope you already knew we don't) here's a rundown of the afternoon we just had....

After spending the week not taking the kids anywhere I wanted to get out and do something as a family. Matt spent the morning helping move our church office so by the afternoon (after naps) I was definitely ready to do something fun.  Typically when we go out for the afternoon we take a walk and/or hit up a park or maybe even go out for an early dinner. 

Today we decided to run errands with the kids on Saturday afternoon.  First of all, its annoying to run errands on a Saturday afternoon anyway.  Throw in 2 kids and it has potential to be even more annoying.

The first stop was Great Harvest Bread Co. to buy some bread for the next few weeks. Grace loves to go in that store and she had earned herself a cookie for some potty success earlier.  So she was even more excited to go. The afternoon was off to a great start.

Then we went to Kohl's.  It was crowded and we took the double stroller in.  This just made it hard and annoying to go down the aisles.  But, I had Kohl's cash I wanted to spend and picked up a couple cute knit dresses for Grace.  She is really into dresses and skirts right now and these will be good play clothes type dresses.  The afternoon was still going strong a couple minor annoyances but nothing negative.

Then we hit the mall.  O my goodness.  It's going to be a long time before we take the kids to the mall again.  The short of it is...Grace sprinted through the mall and didn't stop when she was told, melted down several times, and was just plain stubborn.  Caleb wasn't happy sitting in the stroller, fussed a lot and wanted me.

Since we were already at the mall we decided to eat dinner at the food court and Grace excused herself from the dinner table and ran over to the carousel without permission.  We were not happy about that especially because we've been working on asking to be excused at home.  And to top it off Grace had such a serious meltdown because we wouldn't let her ride the carousel that she lost bladder control and peed all over Matt.  I hope next time is better but I'm ok with not going to the mall for a long time with the kids.  And when we do go rules and consequences will be laid out in advance.