Scary Face Pancake Day

Friday was IHOP’s “Kid’s Free Scary-Face-Pancake Day,” and to celebrate our first fever-free day in almost two weeks I decided to take the kids.

Their lunch would be free. I wouldn’t have to clean up.

Their lunch would be fun. I wouldn’t have to tell anyone to eat their food.

And the best part: They could play with their food, and I wouldn’t have to correct them.

It was a complete win-win scenario for me!

Micah is not used to going out to eat. I’ll have to say we went out to eat a lot more when we had just one child. With three kids under age four? Well, it’s just more complicated. Plus we’re aggressively trying not to spend money, so eating out (typically) isn’t in the budget right now.

We took our seats, and the waiter brought Mara and Micah crayons and a page to color.

Micah pushed his crayons away and turned to face the waiter. “No,” he says. “Want can-cake! [pancake]”

He was so excited for these pancakes–maybe I hyped him up too much–but thankfully his speech isn’t very clear yet, so the waiter didn’t seem to understand what he was saying–or else just graciously ignored him.

When the pancakes arrived, each child looked in awe at the whipped cream and strawberries. And then I showed them the mini Oreos (to decorate the eyes) and the candy corn for the mouth.

Predictably, Mara meticulously decorated her face–just like the picture on the menu.

On the other hand, Micah’s treats didn’t stand a chance! He crammed several into his mouth, and then seeing Mara decorating, he dumped the rest of them in the middle of his pancake and smashed them down.

It was a fun outing to watch and undoubtedly a yummy lunch to eat. Needless to say, we’re not adding this to our menu, but to quote Micah, “Oh wow! How fun!”

As we left, I was digging for my keys and Mara knelt down on the mat in front of the door and said “Oh look! It says the name! I – H- O – P!”

That was the first time I really noticed her making a “word” connection, rather than a letter connection. Although, thinking back, the mat may have had the “logo” on it instead of just the name.–I can’t remember. I didn’t take a picture. 😉