out to eat

today we did something that we dont' do all that often. we went out to a sit down restaurant to eat a meal. we actually don't eat out because we like to eat at home & we'd rather spend our money elsewhere, but after today's bull-roping event, i'm reminded of another reason that we don't eat out too often. elise has always (okay, usually) been awesome at public venues--movies, restaurants, church, grocery store...you name it. ian, on the other hand, is a different animal. here's a rundown of how the meal went
1. we sit down, girls on one side of the booth, boys on the other.
2. ian begins climbing on the table to get to me.
3. cory & i change seats so i can be beside ian
4. ian begans shaking salt all over the table. while i clean that up he beging licking the ketchup bottle.
5. ian throws his straw in the floor & spills water out of the straw hole in his cup. while i clean that up he grabs the pepper shaker and sprinkle down the table.
6. ian gets out all the packets of nutrasweet and throws them across the table at elise. (he has a good arm and good aim for an 18 month old)
7. elise hollars as ian pelts her with more packets while cory and i scramble to confiscate all stray packets.
8. elise crawls under the table to escape ian and sulk b/c her spaghetti is "taking forever".
9. ian crawls on top of the table to get over to elise and/or the extra nutrasweet packets on the seat beside cory
10. i pull ian back and don't "let" him crawl on the table. he cries and hits me--i tell him no, he does it again, cory takes him over to his side, elise crawls under the table to me, ian cries b/c he can no longer get to me b/c he's in trouble.
11. "finally" the food comes--elise gets sauce on her new shirt, ian eats all the spagehtti with his hands. he wipes his face, his shirt, his pants, cory's jacket, the booth, and anything else he can get his hands on with spaghetti sauce. it was so bad the waitress brought us wet wipes.
12. cory & i shovel every last bite of our meal down, b/c daggone it we came here to eat a meal & we're going to eat it & enjoy it!
13. we order an apple crisp for dessert. ian slings ice cream and the yummy crumb topping around the booth.
14. we leave the place in shambles and congratulate ourselves on such a successful family outing!