Let's try this again...

Okay, I'm going to try to do this thing. But I make no guarantees. You see, I can't think of anything clever and interesting to write about. Oh sure, stuff happens in my life, but I don't if anyone would enjoy reading about it. It's mostly, wake up, get dressed, get the kids up, go to work, go to play practice, go home. But in an attempt to write something interesting, here's a little thing that happened to us on Saturday. You may have seen the last few pictures I posted on facebook.

This past Saturday we had play practice at 2:00. We're practicing at Southside High School because one of the guys in the show teaches drama there and he snagged us their auditorium (an awesome auditorium at that), so we're going to Southside most every night for practice. We decided to take the kids with us on Saturday afternoon. Practice went well, that's not what this story is about. This story is about our lunch afterward.

It's about 4:15 or so when we left the school. We were hungry, having not had lunch because we had a late breakfast, so as we approached McDonald's Danny asked if I wanted to eat there. Sure, why not? It wasn't busy. No problem. As we were walking in the door, Danny noticed some speakers set up on the patio by the playplace and remarked about how he wondered what those were for. Then we saw the sign on the door that Ronald McDonald would be there at 5:00 that day. What's the big deal, right? The girls would like it; free entertainment is always good. Oh, boy.

The place was empty. So far, so good. We went to order. The workers were very nice and were talking to the girls about the "surprise" visitor coming. Whoo hoo. We sat down to eat at about 4:30 or so. Then more people started to filter in.

We ate fairly quickly because the girls were anxious to outside and play. Then more people came in.

One of the ladies in charge came around and handed out raffle tickets. We got two, one for each child, but then one of them accidentally got thrown away. And more people came in.

A little before five Danny says, "oh no," while looking over my shoulder. I turn to see Hamburglar and Grimace coming in. And more people.

You see, Ally is scared of lots of things. I mean lots of things. No joke, pretty much everything you can imagine, and then some. So he was afraid she would panic at the characters. She hid behind me at first, but then she watched them. The lady in charge handed out coloring books, and Hamburglar handed out crayons. Ally wouldn't take them from him. And more people came in.

Then the culmination of all this excitement came in...Ronald McDonald himself. And Ally hid behind me. And more people came in.

Danny remarked, "Wow, Ronald looks like he's pushing 70." He did look pretty old. And the white makeup didn't do much to conceal the fact that he was past his prime. The girls didn't care though. Ally finally decided the characters weren't so scary, but she still wouldn't give him five. Cammy did, though. She's my little daredevil. And more people came in.

After Ronald passed our table we were pretty much finished eating so we gathered our garbage and went out to play. Even more people were out there.

So many kids were running around that playplace I was surprised there was room for any more. But more came.

Luckily we found an empty table outside and planted ourselves in front of the playplace, all the while the girls were having a blast. And more people were coming in.

I kid you not, it was standing room only, and all for Ronald McDonald. I have never seen so many people in one McDonald's in all my life. We didn't get a table to ourselves outside. Some complete and total strangers sat at our table. Really. Mayhem. And the magic show hadn't even started yet. Danny started getting panicky. He really didn't want to be there anymore. I said, yeah, good luck tearing the girls away. He said, let's get them a milkshake. I said, tell them if we leave now they can have a milkshake. That worked!

We had to practically shoulder our way through the inside to get to the counter to order. But thankfully we got our treats and hightailed it out of there before Danny or I had a panic attack. Seriously. Too many kids, too many people, period.

And when we got to the car I proceeded to sanitize everyone. Sheesh.

And still, more people were going in.