Certifiable?

Interesting that mud is much slicker than ice.
Especially when it is 4-6 inches deep.
Add to the melting snow a day of rain and it is a be-yoo-ti-ful sight.
If you are a mud monster.

Yesterday afternoon Stephen, Emily and Nathan had piano lessons at 3:30pm.
At 30 minutes each, that puts us finishing up at 5pm.
Not too bad.
Except driving out to the bus yesterday, I slid and spun out just enough that I didn't want to risk coming home for one hour and then trying to get back out for the Primary Board Meeting at 7pm.

Oh, and did I mention that Pat is in AZ for work-related training?
He'll be home tonight, but it didn't help when it came to juggling everything for the PBMeeting.

So, I had friends lined up to watch the kids...
and was debating on how to use up an hour and fifteen minutes between the end of piano lessons and the time when I was dropping kids off before my meeting.
Eating out was an option, but deciding on the place was a little more difficult.
The kids were torn between Taco Smell, Booger King, and Windy's...but I kept thinking that the time it would take to feed the kids at one of those places would not be enough to fill that whole hour plus.

As I was driving down the highway, I had a thought.
It was Tuesday night, and Golden Corral has "family night" on Tuesdays.

Almost immediately, my logic took over.
Me? Alone with 6 kids at a sit down restaurant?
No way.
Never.

Dang that Golden Corral pot roast.
After thinking about it, I just couldn't stomach the thought of my less-appealing options.

I pulled into the parking lot of Golden Corral and threatened my kids--oh, I mean explained nicely how much I needed their cooperation to make this (seriously insane) endeavor to work.

And then we got out of the van and headed inside.
Within the first two minutes, I almost walked out 3 different times.
Once when everyone was shrieking and jumping around in the rain as if they had never see it before.
Once when Thomas was hanging from the bar where you rest your tray.
And once when Bekah had to "climb" the wall to see over.

By the time we reached the cash register, I was committed to stay, (at least in theory).
Total bill: Approximately $23.00
Not too bad for 7 of us! ($2.99 for Stephen and Emily, $1.99 for the younger 3, and Sam-Sam was free).

We were alerted to a table for 8 behind some friends of ours...so we headed that way, with me thinking they would at least understand my frustrated, terse snipping at my children as they chose not to behave.

We were soon seated, and headed to the salad bar first.
Everyone (except Sam-Sam) chose something they wanted or liked, and came back and ate their first plateful of food.
Next, I paired Stephen with Thomas and Emily with Bekah and instructed Thomas and Bekah to keep both hands on their glass plates at all times and have Stephen and Emily serve them what they wanted.
Genius, I tell you.
Those kids rocked.
They did a muy fabuloso job, and made me a very proud mama.
Same set-up, and a visit to the dessert bar ended the meal on a very sweet note.

No broken plates, no screaming, fighting, or hungry kids.
It was a miracle.
Truly.
Even if I was slightly insane for choosing to go out to eat with 6 children in the first place.