Tuesdays

Once, when Dale and I were either dating or just recently married, we headed out for dinner on a random Monday night and decided to go to Moe's, blissfully ignorant as to what we would find inside. Not long after opening the door, we discovered IT WAS KIDS' NIGHT.

It could only be described as a zoo. There was a karaoke machine in the corner, and the bigger kids were all singing and dancing. I don't think there was a spare high chair in the place. And it was loud.

I think we told each other than night to make a mental note to avoid Moe's on kids' night...

Fast-forward to 5 years and 2 kids later. You guessed it. We are regulars at Moe's on Tuesdays (they switched from Monday to Tuesday Night Kids' Night at some point). Gone is the karaoke machine. But we now welcome Balloon-Man Mike every week. Except when he's on vacation. When Balloon-Man Gary tries to take his place. The balloons aren't as elaborate, at least from what I can tell, but Gary is a bit more personable and always goes out of his way to bring Macie a little plastic animal for her to chew on, since she's not old enough for a balloon. Either way, both of the balloon men have learned to come to our table to make Ivie the balloon of her choice, because Dale always tips them. He's a sucker for the smile on her face when she holds up her flower bracelet, or her monkey in a tree, or her kitty cat, or her, well, you get the picture...

Now, I must admit that after hitting up Moe's every Tuesday that we've been in town for the last, literally, 100 weeks, we've grown a bit weary of it. Especially Dale, who I think has told me at least 100 times that he prefers Qdoba, which, incidentally, is not half a mile from our house with a "kids eat free" night. So we don't ever go there. But even Ivie has expressed a desire for change recently. A couple of weeks ago, as we drove the short road home from Moe's, she said to me, "Mommy, I don't want to go to Moe's any more!". I guess it does get old for her to eat the little "mini-tacos" that I make for her week, after week, after week... In fact, now that I think about it, it kind of gets old sitting there making her mini-tacos while my initially-crunchy tacos sit getting soggier, and soggier, and soggier.

So we've starting mixing it up. Thankfully, though, we've still been able to forge ahead with our routine of not ever eating at home on Tuesdays, because it just so happens that the Chick-fil-A that is even CLOSER to our house also has kids' night on Tuesdays... So the past few weeks, we've met our usual Moe's dinner companions, the Cherrys, for some fun and socializing with the "moo cow" instead of the balloon-man. And, this past week, Ivie was thrilled to see that "the girl moo cow" made an appearance instead of "the boy moo cow" that is generally there for kids' night. And Dale and I are thrilled that Ivie's finally gotten over her fear of the moo cow so that we can actually GO IN the restaurant when he/she is around (since, in the past, if we pulled up and she saw him in the window, she would insist on us going through the drive-thru and taking the food home to eat it).

So all is still well on Tuesdays in the Herman house. If you're ever looking for us, you'll know where to go...