McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut

My mom has been in Provo this week staying with my Aunt Barbara and as a result, I've probably made more trips down to Provo in the past 7 days than I made in the previous six months combined. Moms have that impact on us all, I think.

So Leslie and I took our children - sans Jane - down for lunch this week and when you have that many small children to feed and entertain for any period of time, I believe that the rule of thumb is that you take them to McDonald's. Which is exactly what we did.

For the record, I would like everyone to know that the McDonald's in Provo next to the hospital has the best playland for small children that I've ever seen. Beware, though... they charged 16 cents for ranch and another 16 cents for some sweet and sour sauce. Not cool. As a frequenter of McDonald's, I found this practice to be unusual and annoying. The kids had a great time though, and I caught a few photos of them on my phone that I now intend to share with you.

It took me a while to finally catch a good ('good' being a relative term) photo of Charlie on the lap of his future employer. He was quite taken with Ronald, as was Ben. They had long, meaningful conversations with him wherein they shared their hopes and dreams. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to compete with that, which is why I rely so heavily on McDonald's to raise my children for me.

Lizzy was also happy to spend some quality time with Ronald. That little boy in the photo is a random little boy who, when he saw that I was taking photos, hopped into the picture and started hamming it up. Someone should get him into show business.

And I had to post this one of Leslie retrieving her small child from the hamster cage because what kind of little sister would I be if I didn't take advantage the opportunity? I would be a lousy one. A lousy little sister. And no one wants that, do they?