Observations at Sizzler

Mark had planned to go to the youth activity at the church last night but plans were changed at the last minute so he ended up being unexpectedly free for the evening. With Carly and Rachel running out the door to their Young Women's Christmas party & Jacob off to 11-yr old Scouts we decided to take the little kids out to dinner at Sizzler seeing as we had 2 free Sizzler kid meals.

As usual, it was an adventure.

While in line to place our order, Mark had to do some instructing on proper restaurant etiquette.

"no jumping up and down"

"get up off the floor"

"don't point at other people's dinners"

sheesh! you'd think we never took these children out to dinner. I know it's not very often but really.....

Samantha ordered the children's steak.

Mason considered Pizza but I've tasted the pizza they sometimes put on the salad bar and told him I didn't think their pizza would be very good so he switched to the hamburger, plain- of course. Just the meat and the bun. It was an easy sell once I told him it most likely came with french fries that he could douse in ketchup.

Pretty soon we were seated at the table and the observations began.

Mason:

"This is the best night of my life!!!!"

"I know how they make their lights mom. Do you want to know how they do it mom? They turn on a flashlight and hang it upside down inside of that cover. That's how they do it"

Our drinks came. Mason took a sip of his Sierra Mist.

"ooohh! This is Spriter than normal!!!!"

Our meals came. Mason continued to talk and talk and talk. Mark gave me a desperate "does this kid ever stop talking look" and pointed out sternly that he better start eating, he hadn't even taken a bite of his hamburger. Mason turned his hamburger around so Mark could see the very small single bite taken out of one side of the burger. He shrugged his shoulders and said:

" Sometimes I like to talk more than I want to eat."

Samantha was awfully quiet. Granted she has never been as big a talker as the boy but she usually holds her own pretty good if she thinks she's got a cornered audience. She was REALLY enjoying her steak and fries. MMMM... good! There were a lot of appreciative groans of delight as she chewed and swallowed.

We ended the evening on a high note with a trip to the ice cream bar. Mason and Samantha both chose vanilla- there was some serious discussion weighing the merits of going with the cone or the bowl. Bowls won out. I mean.... where do you pile the toppings if you get a cone ?

They both beamed from the attention and the prestige of doing something utterly fantastic that the older kids were not involved in. They very maturely told me they wouldn't talk about it ALOT at home.

They kept their word. They only talked about it some.....

We got our own jello with whipped cream on it. We got a cookie. I got a steak. I got a hamburger. We both got vanilla ice cream with oreos. Their french fries are really good!

Mason saw the bummed look on Jacob's face and promptly ran to the fridge and pulled out his to-go box, took out his hamburger with the one bite taken out and broke it in half. "You take Half Jacob." Jacob said "No, no, that's ok" Mason insisted. "I want you to have some Jacob. You are my best brother"

Jacob's shrugged and accepted.

He bit, he chewed and swallowed.

"Oh man! It's still warm!"

It was a good night.