Back in August, Thomas the Train made his grand appearance in Newport, so I took the day off and took both kids (I'm a self-less mother like that). I'll admit - other than the actual Thomas the Train, which I thought was pretty good, the event itself was somewhat cheesy. Of course, the kids didn't notice as they were too consumed with the way over-priced Thomas paraphernalia that was for sale. It was at this point that I had to remind Avery that we don't just buy something to buy something. I mean, really? There was no other reason that she wanted a fleece blanket with Thomas all over it - for $25! The child could care less about Thomas, but for whatever reason, she felt the need to just BUY. I have NO idea where she gets this from...
Anyway - it was pretty cool. They turned the Newport Dinner Train into Thomas and when it was our turn, we hopped on board and rode on him 15 mins down and then 15 mins back - perfect amount of time for a 5 and a 3-year-old.
While on the train, a guy came down the aisle and passed out a ton of stuff to keep the kids busy - crayons, legos, coloring books, etc. I believe that Avery's comment was, "Mom, we get so much stuff on this trip!" I was hoping that this would take care of the need to buy something, but I soon realized I was wrong as we were walking by the Alex and Ani store later and she exclaimed that she wanted a bracelet! Mind you - these are not bracelets worn by kids. They are worn by adults and adults only. Again, not sure where she gets this from...
Back to Thomas - both kids loved riding on the train. However, Alex was a bit confused as to why Thomas wasn't talking to us. I explained that he was clearly shy around all of these people. From there, each kid got a balloon. A dog for Avery and a butterfly for Alex.
It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to take a walk through Newport and then have lunch on the deck of a restaurant right on the water. It was great. The kids got lunch. I got lunch and a glass of wine. It was the perfect setting.
Afterwards, much to my dismay, they spotted the arcade. Oh my god. I will NEVER again enter one of these places. So, first of all, we go in and of course, they have the case with all of the prizes that you can win with the tickets that you get from the games. And, of course, they have the biggest prizes that require like a gazillion tickets right in the front and of course, half of them were balls. So, as you can imagine, Alex was going nuts and didn't quite understand that there was no way in hell we were going to play enough games that would get us enough tickets for one of the balls. So, once we got him distracted enough to leave the case of balls, we all played a couple of games until I nearly had a panic attack. All of a sudden, I realized that here we were in this nasty, germ infested, dark arcade while it was gorgeous and sunny outside. I couldn't deal. So, we left and ended up with (after MUCH discussion and near meltdowns) a bracelet, a ring, a plastic snake and a car that was broken, so it wasn't even in the case to be sold. However, the girl gave it to us for free after witnessing Alex nearly having a meltdown and me having a panic attack. I may try this approach more often now that I think about it...
Overall, it was a really nice day with the kids. The only downside is that I now go around the house singing the theme song to Thomas..."They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight..." in a very loud, obnoxious operatic voice and the kids (and Josh and probably Deacon) want to kill me. I love it...
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