Way better than a trip to McDonald's...

Let's face it, every little kid on earth LOVES McDonald's, and it's NOT for MD's fries or their hamburgers, sometimes not even for their Happy Meals, though I have to admit the cheap little toys, that eventually get lost or broken, that workers stuff inside the meal box are semi enticing... kids really just LOVE McDonald's for the playground and ball pit they can spend an hour or so lost in... seriously think about it, what would McDonald's be without a playground???  Just another fast food place... (I know this for a fact because by our old place there was an old McDonald's just up the street from us that NEVER got much business because it DIDN'T have a playground... fast forward to today and they've completely remodeled the place WITH an indoor playground... business is BOOMING for them now!).  However, if you're a mother like me, you're probably wary of letting your child play on the play equipment... every one knows the slides at McDonald's are streaked with pee and worse, your kid might find a log or two hidden in the ball pit (a.k.a. petrified pooh terd- GROSS!)...  when I really stop to think about it, McDonald's playground isn't really a place I want my kids to play around in- especially WITH OUT shoes on...  that's why when I've reached my breaking point and Spencer's not around to help because he's working late and dinner still needs to be made, instead of throwing all the boys in the car and making a fast getaway to MD's (a solution that seems SO simple and easy) I pull out our Little Tykes Bounce House, blow it up in the front living room, throw some balls in (some meaning oh, 250 balls) and let the boys go WILD!  They're as happy as can be and Mom (that's me) is just relieved to have them off my heels for the time being.  It's a win-win situation...

Oh, funny note about our front living room... while my parents were here visiting at the end of December my mother asked me why we hadn't furnished the room with a nice sofa or a couple of nice armchairs....  I told her we liked it empty and THIS is EXACTLY the reason why!  Okay, so that's not entirely the truth; at some point, when our wallets get fatter, we'd like to tear up the carpet in this room and put in wood flooring and have custom library shelving built along one of the walls, complete with a ladder to climb... we fancy the room as our future music room/library; until then, it remains just another room in the house the boys can consider their own...