Texas Road House

Ethan got a 100% on his spelling test. Whenever the kids get a 100, the teacher puts a dot on their noses to let everyone know they did so well. He wouldn't wash itoff, so here is Ethan with his green nose.

We tried to explain that we were going to take him home, with or without the box...

Katelyn received a "compassion" award from school, a couple of months ago. And with that award came a free kids meal from Texas Road House. Then last week Ethan received a free kids meal for a reading accomplishment. And Dan and I received a gift certificate for Texas Road House for Christmas. Seemed like someone was telling us to go there :) and since I am all for having dinner that I don't have to cook or clean up after, we went on Friday. We tried to get there before the rush, but didn't quite make it, so we had to wait about 15 minutes. Dan and I kept saying, "they are being so good". We were quite amazed at how well behaved they were. That restraunt is usually pretty noisy, which was fine with us. I realized if we were going to take our kids out, that is a really good place because no one expects quiet there. I have to say that when I look at my kids, I think, hmmm 4 kids. No big deal. I mean, we didn't have them all at once, so we have had time to adjust, and get used to the idea of having all of them around. And then for me to be pregnant, well, it is just kind of normal for us. :) But when you walk through a crowded restraunt, I was noticing people looking at us in a "what in the world" sort of way. And I truly felt like I was in a parade, and thought maybe I should start waving or something. I kept hearing, did you see how many kids they have? I felt like saying back, we are on a school field trip, the bus is right outside. (All joking aside, sometimes I wish I had a bus so there would be a little more room for everyone/everything.) haha. Well, shortly after we were seated, they really turned the music up. Zach and Ethan got Sprite, and Katelyn and Alyssa got lemonaid. (Katelyn does NOT like soda, she says it's too hot) anyway, I am not quite sure what they put into the kids drinks because once the music turned up they turned into kids I have never seen before. Zach was dancing like a crazy guy, (he was sitting across from Katelyn and Ethan) and they both were laughing so hard at him. Which egged him on even more. It was so funny to watch, and I looked at Dan at one point, and said, "people are going to think there is something really wrong with him." :) Needless to say, we had a really fun time. We usually don't like to take the kids out to restraunts because it is inevitable that someone will melt down. But I have to say that if you have kids and you want to go out, take them there. It's so loud, no one really notices what the heck your kids are doing. One waitress said, "you should bring them back on Tuesday, it's kids night, free ice cream and everything." Dan made a good point that we should start keeping a list of all the places that do kids night. We had so much fun with them, and it helped that we didn't have to pay for food that they didn't eat. :)

*Here is Zach going crazy. The lady behind us was a little ornery, so I tried to keep him from at least hitting or kicking the bench. It is really hard to discipline a child when you are laughing so hard. (you'll probably have to pause my dumb playlist to get the full effect.)