When the Grocery Store is Actually Worth It

It's the craziest thing - my best friend from when I was THREE is now a mom, and the both of us have children who are three-years-old(ish). 

You know what she did?  She contacted me and asked me if I'd like to go to THE GROCERY STORE.  Mmm huh.  We're talking FRY'S - the very same grocery store chain that caused me to write this post.  But there's something she's learned in the last 25 years that I obviously hadn't: If you want to avoid having a NIGHTMARE at the grocery store, then don't go there in the middle of the night with coupons and no cash - GO IN THE DAY TIME!  (Truth be told, that real-world nightmare actually ended up earning me money on a monthly basis!  My couponing coach read my blog post and she took pity on me.  Now I have a permanent discount on my monthly subscription to Coupon$ense.  I guess it does pay to blog even though I haven't installed AdSense and haven't been picked up by a blogging publisher.  You have to be THAT bad...i.e. you have to have reached a certain level of pathetic-ness to merit the kind of profit I have earned by documenting my nightmare via blogging.)

At any rate - if I were to play the "who is busier" game with anyone in the world - I might just win.  No one really cares how busy you are, though - they just care about how much you care.  And that's what I thought about my kids when we got invited to the GROCERY STORE TOUR for preschoolers!  I knew I NEEDED to go there for them.  First of all, Angie did all the hard work - I didn't have to do anything but show up.  I did have momentary anxiety playing hookie from all my work responsibilities, but I'm telling you we DID NOT REGRET seizing the day!  And this is why:

 

We got to cram down a "healthy" breakfast of cinnamon rolls before we rushed out the door.

We were given all kinds of samples in the store - toothbrushes, CHEERIO bags, stickers, etc.

We walked INSIDE the store's FREEZER and found out first-hand what TWO DEGREES feels like!

Emmett quickly marched in and out without any expressions or obvious enjoyment, but afterwards he told me, "I walked out of that freezer and I SHIVERED!"

We got to go through those big, black, employee only doors - we've waited our whole lives to see the back part of a store!

Instead of staring at the lobsters, WE GOT TO PET THEM!

We got to eat snacks under the NAKED sign - haha - I didn't realize that until I uploaded the photos, haha!  This part of the tour was very interesting, because we ate deluxe snacks like cutie oranges, pretzels and turkey, cheese sticks, water, and cookies.  While we were snacking, our tour guide taught us about produce.  I learned that tomatoes weren't originally red & smooth.  You can buy non-GMO, organic tomatoes, but they apparently cost an arm and a leg.  They're yellow or other colors & look funky.

The kids got balloons!

And we got to use the check-out stand!

And use paper money!

LIFE IS GRAND!

 

I left the store thinking, "I'm sure glad I didn't miss this."  When got in the car and saw that we wore Miles out, it just melted my heart!  I love that he uses Emmett's car seat as a foot rest!  I love that Emmett was happy, too, and it's moments like this that make me love being a mom.  It feels so good to make memories with the kids - that's what life is all about!  Who would have thought that some of the best moments can even come in a grocery store?