Ikea Trip

Since we are leaving in a few days, and Art will be at the house without us for about 9 days, I want to leave him with a few projects for him to work on.  Hence the trip to Ikea.  Lucky for him, I actually got less than was on my list, because I could not find something I liked for 2 of our needs.  Still, he has a few things to put together: a 3rd Billy bookcase for the playroom.  Zachary is getting older and so are his books.  We are running out of room for the wide range of books we have for their 3 ages.  That, and I usually get them each a book when we go to Goodwill. :)  Also a third chair for the craft table.  Yannick will no longer accept less than exactly what his brothers have.   I also got about 16 frames to replace the large photo screen I have had for over 11 years.  Which broke.  In the hallway.  When Zachary was practicing his four square.  We should have known better.  Sigh.  I also got a new comforter and matching decorative pillows which will make some people happy - for our bedroom to have one consistent "look" which can be decorated with, and not an ever changing array of duvet covers changing the look of the room with each laundry cycle.  :)  Stephanie Watson has made me grow up. :)

I picked Tuesday because kids eat free in the Ikea cafe.  We got there about 30 minutes early on accident.  Worked out fine because the kids ate their snacks in the car and we listened to REM.  Then I dropped Z and W off in their kids center (Smaaland?) for their first time.  N was so sad he did not get to go.  I was surprised at how quickly the 45 minutes passed and I had to book it to pick them up - not even close to being done!  Sigh.  So we continued shopping with all three kids which was *NOT* a disaster.  Ok, it wasn't horrible, but there were some tears.  So we got nearly every bit done and we made our way for the free meal.  Not bad, feeding the 4 of us for $5. :)  Sadly, none of the kids loved their choice.

Z thought the mac and cheese was yucky, but ate all his veggies.  W did not like his chicken strips, but the fries were good.  Y liked his chicken just fine but had to trade his yellow carrots with Z orange carrots because he could not get past the odd color.  I enjoyed my salad.  They of course all loved their chocolate milk, AND watching Spongebob on the tv.  Sheesh.  Yannick spilled chocolate milk on himself (a classic move for him), and we went to change him before finally being able to leave.  Turned out being able to leave was a bit of a nightmare, because of how they set the place up.  The elevators we needed did not "go down" (which of course they do, they just want you to go through the whole store to get out).  So it was a bit of an ordeal with 3 very tired kids.  3 hours in Ikea and we survived. :) And now Art has some projects while we are gone, and I have some home improvements.  Not something I want to do every Tuesday, but good to know the option is there.