We began with dinner at Jack in the Box. I know, that’s nothing special. I considered a nicer restaurant, but the numerous possibilities of chaos and havoc that three kids bring to my imagination, prompted me toward the fast food arena. I’ll save sit-down restaurant outings for when Israel is with us.

Somehow I convinced my children to forego the Kids Meals with accompanying toy, and share a salad with me. Don’t let me fool you. They usually want a Kids Meal. But thankfully they have figured out that the foods Mom and Dad get are much more interesting than the plain kids’ foods. Trinity, especially, will often leave her boring meal to share mine. So once in a while, the enticement of flavor-variety overcomes their desire for a cheap toy.

We left our pleasant dining experience and moved on to a family favorite: Barnes and Noble. After hunting down a Michael Shermer book for myself, we advanced to the children’s area. Aiden spent most of the time pushing every button on every book containing musical sound effects. Blake found a huge volume of The Chronicles of Narnia. It contained every book, unabridged for a total of 767 pages.

Trinity, who usually picks pretty girly books that have a piece of jewelry attached, broke out of her pattern last night. I am so proud. She found an amazing pop-up dinosaur book. The paper-art is incredible. The intricacy of the cut-outs are amazing. Each page has a huge dinosaur in the middle, plus smaller pop-ups in the four corners, which you open individually. They have little corner tabs that hold the smaller pop-ups shut so they don’t open until you are ready.

All children love pop-up books, but I think it was the art that interested Trinity. She said she wished they also had a butterfly or a flower book. Since she is an artist, herself, Trinity and I decided to see if we can make our own pop-up book. That will be our next project. We will try to make a flower or butterfly pop-up book using cardstock. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Blake and I also came up with a project idea. I am going to help him make a book called, “Blake’s Book of Book Reviews.” Blake loves reading. Maybe he’s too ambitious. He starts lots of books (the bigger the better), but only finishes a few of them. He moves back-and-forth between 4-7 books at a time. To motivate him to actually complete more books, his teacher told us that if Blake would write up a review of a completed book, she would laminate it for him. So Blake and I decided to make a book out of it. We are going to put his current school picture on the cover, and include all his book reviews. I want to make a special shelf showcasing all his completed books. If he likes this project, we will start a new cover with his most current school picture for every year. Imagine growing up with a book full of your own reviews! Can you see the pride and perception of self it would foster? Think of the writing skills he will develop!

But back to our date night. We ended our evening with dessert in the bookstore. You can’t pass up Starbucks when it’s right there in the building with you. Aiden calls our excursions to the coffee shop, “getting a coffee shot.” They always get non-coffee Creme Frappuccino’s. I got my Chai Tea. Even though I don’t actually get the kids coffee, I often wonder if I am raising them to be future coffee junkies. If the highlight of their life is getting a “coffee shot,” AKA, foo-foo drinks at the local expresso bar, I do wonder if they will be addicts by the time they are 16!