What do Red Robin, Baskin Robins and Lightning McQueen have in common?

July 15th, 16th and 17th

Wow!  It is Sunday evening, and I am T-I-R-E-D!  We had such a great weekend....at least in my opinion!  Friday Lauren picked the location of our family dinner.  Only the best for this family!  She picked Red Robin.  Lauren is the family "Ham-burglar", that girl loves her burgers! So, of course I am happy to oblige AND I was a bit resistant, too.  The healthy side of me did not want their bottomless basket of fries anywhere near these hips!  After all, I am 37 and about to be a bridesmaid for the 20th time in my life!  Really.
It was all good, and the bottomless pit of saturated fat and extra calories was never offered!  (Amen!!)  The kids loved singing along to the 7 or so birthday songs that were sung while we were there, and the celebratory balloon on the way out was just the icing on the cake.  We then decided to go for ice-cream. (I know...fries and then ice cream...) I was NOT resistant to that, at all!  Ice cream is my kryptonite....it can weaken even my strongest willpower.  Baskin Robins....here we come!  Lauren always gets the same thing.  Chris opted for the fruit smoothie (he is not that much into sweets) and I went straight for the double chocolate/peanut butter chunk!  (one scoop, of course) YUUUUMMM!

Saturday, Lauren picked again.  Chris decided to be nice brother and gave his turn to her.  Drive-In Movie!  I was reaaaaalllly excited about this one!  And the kids were too!  The features were Cars 2 or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2.  Cars 2 was the obvious choice, considering Chris still will not go upstairs without me or Lauren with him.  That evening, we packed all of our favorite snacks, our blankets and pillows and headed out for this super fun adventure!  How cool to sit in the trunk of our SUV, tune into a radio station (no more funky, metal things hanging from the car window!) and watch a movie with the family!  Chris fell asleep 3/4 of the way through and of course Lauren wanted to stay for the next feature!  It was a really cute movie and Chris said he had a great time . ....  :)Sunday....ahhhh Sunday.  After Lauren slept off her drive-in movie, junk food hang-over (Chris and I had already been up for a couple hours!), it was time to draw the activity or 2 for the day.  This was an interesting experience.  It was Christopher's turn to draw from the jar.  Ironically, the first activity neither of them liked.  The second, Lauren did not want to do.  The third activity, Lauren refused to do.  And then finally the fourth, Lauren "hated" and swore she would NEVER do! (2 of the 4 had her hand writing on them....hmmm?)  So, I sat there, feeling anger and frustration coming over me.  "This is supposed to be fun, damn it!" I was thinking.  I could feel the drama ensuing and I made a choice right then and there that we were going to take a different path today.  I let Lauren know that she did not have to participate in anything, and she could also choose to have fun, despite her feeling resistant.  I told her that sometimes, I am not super thrilled about the activity, AND I choose to have FUN anyway!  And, I do!  And (this is cute), Chris said, "Lauren, remember when I chose out of the bouncy balls?  Remember when I came in later and made them with mom and Aiden?  I had fun!"
At this point Christopher and I were setting up a game of Cadoo, and invited Lauren to play along with us.  I am going to chalk up her response to the recent full moon we just had.....OMG!!  The critical parent in me wanted to spew all sorts of critical parent words, with finger waving!  Then I thought, "Different path, Different path...."
I took a deep breath and began asking questions, instead of telling Lauren where to go!! (her room was pretty far down on that list!)
I was again, amazed, at how awesome this open ended question thing works!  Within a few minutes, were were at a place of peace, calm and joy.  And for the next 1 1/2 hrs. we played Cadoo, which by the way, was not one of the ideas from the jar.  We put all the vetoed activities back in the jar for another day.  And, we made agreements that when they choose an activity, that is the one we choose for the day. 

Wonder what is in store for Monday?  Can't wait to find out!