Dinner with the Kids

Tonight we went out to dinner.
That is nothing unusual for us.
But something about it was magical.
Truly.

For starter we had a $40 gift card to the Old Spaghetti Factory.
The old Spaghetti Factory happens to be a family favorite. Well of course it is, they serve noodles, one of the five foods our kids will eat.
This $40 card came in the mail as part of an advertizing campaign.
How we were selected to receive it, I am unaware.
It seemed like their money wasted to me, because we are already fans of the restaurant and eat there a few times a year.
Their loss, our luck!

We arrived, and parked in a front row spot. To which Jake stated "Don't I always come through"
He knows how much I hate walking right now.
It was humorous a few minutes later when we realized we were at the wrong entrance.
A trip through the mall and we arrived at the restaurant and were seated.
Sam all along repeating "noo-noos" in an excited way, his word for noodles.

I opened up the kids menu, gave the kids some color crayons and then read Kate the menu to help her choose a meal. The 4th choice on the list was butter noodles. She said she wanted to butter noodles. I kept reading. She burst into tears because she wanted butter noodles and thought in some way by continue to read the menu I wasn't going to let her. Real tears. Granted she had fallen asleep in the car on the way over to dinner and we had woken her up.
Once we established she would be permitted to order butter noodles the tears stopped and our perfect dinner began.

We ordered drinks, our sides arrived, and a balloon guy showed up at our table. He offered to make the children each a balloon animal in their color choice. For Kate a pink and yellow unicorn. For Sam, a purple airplane. Really the guys creations were far from accurate, but the children accepted them as perfect replicas. Their eyes huge as he twisted. Feeling so adult as they answered his questions for their balloon preference. Sam using all the words in the world to talk about it "guy make airplane, flies, purple airplane... zoom zoom"

You think that might be where the magic ended. But no.
Our children ate applesauce and tons of bread before their meals even arrived.
So much, we were sure they would not be eating the noodles and we would be boxing them up for home. They ate APPLESAUCE. Something I have attempted to serve them time after time at home with no success. That they ate so much, this all alone would have been miraculous.

While we ate our bread and sides, Kate discussed the upcoming sports seasons for the Cougars, what events she would like to attend with her father and, of course, what BYU fan clothing of hers she was going to wear. Yes, in all seriousness this is what our four year old choose to discuss at dinner tonight. Jake and I- surprised and delighted. Of course Kate informed me I couldn't come because I don't like sports. She is a little right.

Soon our meals came.
Usually either Jake or I gets to eat, while the other coaxes the children into eating/ getting off the floor/ playing with their straw.
Today Jake and I began our meals, as did our children.
Each had their own kids plate. Usually we only order one kids plate and make them share because they don't eat that much. But tonight since we were on a gift card we got each their own.
And they ate them too. Almost the entire kids plate. Our kids.
While Jake and I ate mostly uninterrupted aside from some help with a fork on occasion.
In fact we were finished with out meals, and our children were still sitting, happily eating.

Toward the end of the meal Sam grabbed my face with both his hands, said "my mommy" then kissed me on the mouth. It made me happy.
It made Jake and I turn to each other and begin to discuss the possibility that we had in fact somehow warped into some kind of alter world.
Sam seeing how happy I was with the words and kiss, repeated himself, and added a hug too.

Next our ice cream came (it comes with every meal there you know)
And believe what you might, our children ate almost all of that too.
Discussing how the chocolate was extra crunchy- Kate, and how ice cream was "freezing"- Sam

We finished. Our bill came and we sent the gift card to cover it, still not sure how legit it was. They waiter came back. It had worked, covered the entire meal, with a bit left over. Thanks random advertising campaign who selected us.

We left the restaurant.
With two mostly still clean children happily skipping (almost literally) by our sides.
Jake and I turned to one another unsure of what had just happened.

Free dinner.
Delightful children. Children who ate every bite before them, discussed interesting things, showed their love and appreciation for us, and didn't climb under the table.

We may just never attempt to eat out again so we don't tarnish what was a beautiful evening out.

In addition if anyone knows who abducted my children and replaced them with miniature adult look alikes... I am somewhat curious.