Adventures

Twice this week Violet and I took off for an adventure. On Tuesday, we went to Woodfield Mall to go to Build-a-Bear. She had 2 certificates from there, one of which was going to expire at the end of the month. She picked out a Small Fry and 2 outfits. She also had a Claire's gift card and a Bath and Body Works card, so she used both of those too. She chose A&W for our lunch. We don't have one near us, so it is fun to go there. Her other favorite restaurant in the mall is Rainforest Cafe. Since A&W costs us about a third of what Rainforest does, I didn't argue and happily had my root beer and cheeseburger. And any trip to Woodfield would not be complete without a stop at Sanrio, also known as "The Hello Kitty Store." It is all Hello Kitty, all the time! Violet got some gum there, they have really unusual flavors like cola and blueberry.

Rather than go straight home, we stopped at open swim. We have 9 punches to use on our punch pass by June 1st. I don't think we're going to make it. But we also got Violet a new swimsuit later this week that fits so much better, so she said she wants to go a lot more. We got her a Speedo. It does look really good on her. In my opinion, as a lap swimmer, you can't go wrong with a Speedo. They are well made, fit nicely, work for real swimming (not just lounging by the pool), and last a long time. It was more expensive than any previous suit she's gotten, but she's now outgrown girl's sizes. So the days of cheap Walmart suits are over. Even if we got her one there, in the Junior's section, it would be more than in the girl's section.

So that was Tuesday's adventure. Today we went to a history museum about 45 minutes away to see their vintage Girl Scout uniform display. It was a special exhibit for the anniversary. It was nice. The museum was small, but it was really clean and well kept. You know how some of those free, volunteer organization's museums are a bit run down and could use a good overhaul? This one didn't need it. Or maybe it got it when they did the Girl Scout exhibit. I think the local service unit did a lot of the display. We enjoyed it. They did a really nice job with it.

On our way home we stopped and Dunkin Donuts and got coffee (for me) and a dozen donuts (for all of us). We actually just pulled in there to call Mr. Incredible to let him know we'd gotten through the museum quicker than we thought (did I mention it was small?) and that we'd get milk on our way home so he didn't have to do it. We found ourselves in Dunkin's parking lot and decided it was fate. It was also delicious.

We pay for our adventures with our "mad money." Whenever anyone pays us cash (either reimbursement for patches or supplies we buy for Juliettes, or cookie customers) we stash the cash for future adventures. We've saved quite a bit. This was a good week to use some of it. Work was quiet and the weather was decent.