Sam's Sayings: "You mean all we get to do is make stuff??!!""

So said my son upon arrival at Kaleidoscope. We took a big group of moms, grandmas and kids to lunch at Crayola Cafe and Kaleidoscope today. My kids love Crown Center, so we went early and checked out the Lego exhibit and the recently-changed-hands toy store. I managed to purchase only silly putty, so I think that was a success.

We had good plans for Crayola Cafe and explicitly told the hostess that we wanted to split up in small groups and NOT be considered a group. So much for that. Lunch took forever while they tried to bring all our food out at once, except for Lisa's table that ate about 15 minutes even later. We started at 11, but barely made our reservation at Kaleidoscope at 12:20.

I'm not sure about Kaleidoscope. I mean, it's cool. I remember it being cool when I was a kid. But the only word I can use to describe it at this point is chaos. There was just mass chaos as maybe 100 kids were released into an area the size of our church fellowship hall and ran wild. I know it's less creative, but my suggestion: give me some sort of example of what we're supposed to be making at each station. I know I'm not very crafty, but I think I speak for all of us when I say: Give me a little help here.

Once we acclimated (about 5 minutes for us, more for the more organized moms), I think we all had a good time. Sam isn't too crafty either, so he was always ready to move on before Kate was. All in all, they had a good time.

One of the pictures below captured the ongoing saga that is Grace and Sam. They were walking through Crown Center, holding hands, and pointing out things in the stores to one another, laughing. I leaned over to Lisa, Grace's mom, and said, "I've been on dates that weren't as fun as that." She responded, "Most of my current dates aren't as fun as that!" Ah, married life. I don't believe her for one minute though.

Oh, the other funny thing that Grace said is when she and Sam were building with Legos after Kaleidoscope. She said she was "building a secret room that only she and Sam could find." When she saw the look on my face, she added, "Not because we're like dating or something. Just because we're friends." Oh, okay. That's better.

Sam and Kate in front of LEGO art. (We're a cultured bunch.)