The Duck Place

Lane had to work for a little while today, so I took the kids back to the church playground after C's nap. We packed a lunch and ate there. Alexee & Crosby actually took afternoon naps at the SAME time today (that's rare) so I took a short nap too (also rare) while Rhett watched a movie.

The kids have been wanting to go eat at a local catfish place, which they call "the duck place". The restaurant is located beside a pond, and we usually feed the ducks that live there. We didn't see any tonight though. Rhett said maybe they hadn't flown back this way from winter yet. We had a good time anyway. As I've mentioned before, the kids are crazy for gumball/candy/junk machines, and this place has many of them so they were happy. Alexee filled her pink purse with Skittles and Runts and Rhett got candy, a tattoo, some plastic bugs and a fake mustache (pictured below).
Alexee, Crosby and I went outside to roam around before the check was paid, which is not uncommon. You know how you can hear a sound or smell a smell and it instantly takes you back to some piece of your past? Well, we were playing on this porch and this air unit above Crosby kicked on and I suddenly remembered being at church camp in Siloam Springs as a kid. I'm trying to remember if we even had air conditioning in the cabins then (Flippin friends, do you remember?)...maybe it was just similar to the sound of those box window fans, but somehow the sound combined with the heat and humidity seemed so familiar.
A nice couple walked by as they left the building (they'd been sitting at the table next to us), and the lady said, "We were just talking about how watching your family reminded us of when our kids were small. They're 19 and 20 now." I asked if their dinners were as busy as ours back then, and she laughed and said, "Oh yes, but we'd take it back in a heartbeat if we could have our kids that size again." I'd noticed the couple during dinner--they looked so calm and relaxed and actually barely even spoke during their meal. I did hear the man say something to his wife toward the end. That wasn't the case over at our table, but I definitely wouldn't trade it for anything!

I cracked up when Rhett put on his vending machine mustache!

I had to run a quick errand on our way to dinner, and I picked up a package of Silly Bandz while I was out. We're several weeks behind on this craze, but the kids were still super excited. I guess "all the kids at school have them" :) and Rhett has mentioned several times where his friends got theirs. His are ABCs and Alexee's are zoo animals. They were sweet at dinner--Rhett traded her an "A" for a green (fave color) animal of some kind.