our favourite store

When given the choice of several outings, my kids will quite often choose a trip to IKEA. My husband thinks I've corrupted them.  I consider them smart shoppers.  I love going there for many reasons.  First of all, I can always find something that I want is absolutely neccessary.  Second, I get to sign the 2 big kids into the play area which they love for a whole hour.  This means shopping for one whole hour without 2 whining kids, how great is that?  It's win-win-win (I win, the kids win, and of course the store wins because I don't leave empty handed).   The only bad thing is Kyle is getting dangerously close to the upper height limit for the play area.  Fortunately almost all the people who work at the sign-in play area actually know us and don't even bother measuring my kids on the height wall anymore.  Yes, it's true, they really do know me.  In fact when I went a little while ago with only Jillian, the lady signing us in asked where my son was, I kid you not.  My Mom was with me at the time and thought it was hilarious.

A few weeks ago I was feeling not so great in the morning with a headache and some other aches and pains (I recently had a bad fall).  And I felt bad because the kids wanted to play and I kept waving them off to play in the basement playroom by themselves.  By the afternoon Jeff was busy studying, and the kids were done self-entertaining so I figured it was time to get out of the house.  After giving the kids some choices, off to IKEA we went. 

Leah actually fell asleep in the stroller so I had a blissful hour of shopping all by myself in peace and quiet.  I'm not going to lie, I love every minute.  And I came out spending under $20 which Jeff would agree is quite good!  Then I decided to surprise the kids.  Almost every time we go they ask for ice cream from the restaurant, and almost every time I say "no".  This time I bought ice cream cones and had them in hand at pickup, the kids were thrilled.

They even have a nice outdoor playground which we hardly ever visit for various reasons...bad weather, need to get home, Mommy is cranky, etc.  But this day it was perfect weather and we were in no rush so the 3 kids had fun running around for quite some time.

Afterwards we headed to a nearby mall to pick up teacher gifts and cards, along with a giant container of bubble solution since we are out and going through it like crazy these days.

Then it was home where we had breakfast for dinner with pancakes, ham and smoothies...a kid favourite in this house. 

When I make smoothies I try to pack as much good stuff in there as I can.  These ones had carrots, avocado, blueberries, banana, fruit juice and vanilla yogurt.  Avocado is Kyle's favourite smoothie ingredient, it really does make them extra smooth and creamy.

Afterwards we settled on the couch with pjs, blankets and pillows to watch one of the new movies and have snack which was animal crackers, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.

The very best part of the day was when I said goodnight to Kyle, he gave me a hug and thanked me for "the best day ever".  Glad you had fun Kyle!