Having a third kid is a lot of fun. Sometimes however it complicates things. Take for example our adventure last night at McDonald’s. First let me explain that the fast food restaurants here must have been in some bizzare competition to out-do the others in attracting customers. Each one has phenomenally humongous children’s place places. Slides and swings and climby things. It’s crazy. The kids love it and so sometimes we take them to McDonalds just to play on the indoor playground. So last night we decided to take them to McDonalds for dinner. I purchased 2 regular meals and 2 happy meals for Noah and Hailey. Joslin? She is only 20 months, she hasn’t earned a spot on the happy meal team and subsequently she must share off of mom and dad’s food at any restaurant we go to. Until last night.

As many of you know, Happy Meals come with a toy. Hailey and Noah get really excited for the toy and usually that comes out first before food. When they both pulled out the toy to see what it was I look over at Joslin and with both hands in the air looking longingly and with a bit of jealously at the toy doggy’s she turned to me and said, “Toy?” … “Toy?” Oh boy. That girl melts my heart. It was heartbreaking. I didn’t get her a happy meal toy and she wanted to know where her’s was.

Juli immediately wanted me to go get one and I must admit I almost did. The pressure was intense. Joslin staring at me, Juli staring at me, the other parents in the playground, staring at me. Right before I cracked however I noticed Noah and that he was not that into the dog toy he pulled out. I think I heard him muttering something under his breath about this not being a transformer. I quickly and deftly swooped down and whispered in his ear, “Noah I will give you a special treat if you share you dog toy with Joslin. Without hesitation or reservation he handed Joslin his toy and went about his business. I was impressed. Heartbreak averted! Whew!

Now my only problem was that the bribe worked. What could substitute for the toy? He didn’t mention anything to me for the rest of the night so I thought, wow I might just get out of having to do anything. But alas it was not to be. Quietly as the girls were going into the house and he was getting out of the car, he said, “Dad, what is my special treat?” Having already passed the Walmart where all white trash toys can be purchased and figuring he had forgot about our deal, I was at a loss. Fortunately I had purchased some candy bars to tempt my wife with during her daily workout. ( I can’t have her all hot and sexy while I am on my downward slide can I? ) So anywho, I gave Noah a choice, You can have a candy bar or you can watch an episode of Spider-Man the cartoon with Dad after the girls have gone to bed. Surprisingly he chose the one I didn’t expect. Can you guess which one? He is such a smart good kid.

On a different note, we submitted our papers for renting our home in Arizona. Hopefully we can get it rented pretty quick. We need to have it rented for a while before we can buy a home up here. Shane, Juli’s cousin, is getting ready to list the home we are in right now so we will have to figure out where we need to be pretty soon. We took pictures of the house so that he could post them with the listing. This has been a great house to be in and we are so thankful to Shane and his family for allowing us to stay here while we tried to get situated. Here was one of my favorite pictures that I took.: