Perspective!

It's funny how your perspective can change overtime. Something that you would never consider doing becomes natural or something that seemed impossible at one time or another is now very doable.

 

For example when Ella was a baby I remember taking all 3 kids to Costco....Owen and Jack in the cart and Ella in the Bjorn, all 3 strapped in. I was sure something was going to go terribly wrong. It felt like the biggest accomplishment. But then over time and more practice it became normal.

 

So a couple weeks ago when I took all 5 of the kids by myself to IKEA I didn't even think twice about it! Now if I was still the same person that I was back in 2010 I might have thought I was crazy to even consider this task let alone do it.

 

I'm not saying there aren't difficulties when it comes to taking 5 kids out in public though. I do try to plan and think through what's going to happen while we're out. On this particular day I wanted to eat lunch since it was a Tuesday and kids eat free on Tuesdays. From experience I knew that it's a bear trying to navigate through the lunch line with the stroller or a cart so once I was finished shopping, Zeke and I went back to the van to put our purchases and the stroller away. Then I put Zeke in the pack and we went back in to pick the older ones up from the play area.

 

 

 

Overall the kids did really great on our outing. We did have a little hiccup right off the bat...since it was kids eat free day everyone was there with their kids so we had to wait for 30 minutes for it to be our turn in the play area. That's the longest we've ever had to wait and this wasn't something I planned for. I didn't come prepared with snacks and the kids were sure they wanted to play before they ate. Thankfully the mom in front of us in the line had a couple boys too so the kids visited.

 

 

It was Logan's first time going in the play area. I'm really happy that IKEA changed the rules for being able to go into the play area. Before you had to be 3 and potty trained, but now you just have to be 37 inches tall and potty trained. She had a great time!

 

 

Officer Jack was sure to show Logan the ropes about not jumping into the pit of balls. He loves feeling like the big man on campus!

 

 

The best part about eating at IKEA is the Diet Coke from the soda fountain. I don't drink diet soda except at IKEA! For some reason it's absolute heaven from there. Ella thinks so too even though she's giving me her angry face...maybe she's saying, "Hands off my soda!"