TRU

No, not the restaurant. It's not a participant in Kids' Restaurant Week, but even if it were, I probably would not take my kids to Tru, though the Trib has good things to say about Gale Gand (and as a pastry-addict, I'd like to try her stuff sometime). Instead, dear readers, I am talking about a giant, brightly colored, plastic-filled, noise-generating, headache-inducing outpost: Toys "R" Us. Otherwise known as TRU among the parent-set.

I took The Boy, The Girl, and The Baby to Toys "R" Us this afternoon. It is unlike me to shop for toys (a playroom [including a 5x5 EXPEDIT unit] bursting at the seams, plus toy bins in every bedroom, and the basement have killed that urge), but we had some gift cards to spend. The Boy picked out a new Razor Scooter (he left his old one on the front sidewalk and it had been stolen), The Girl chose a Little Tykes digital camera, and The Baby got a baby stroller (we now have 3; hopefully this means fewer squabbles over them) and a new GeoTrax train with controller (bringing our total of those up to 3 also; I hope this also translates into fewer squabbles). The best part? We still have $26.41 left over for another rainy day toy expedition. I was tempted to spend it on a huge GeoTrax Central Station toy, which was on clearance for $49.99. But although it'd be cool, it would also require more storage space than we currently have, so I passed.

At that point, we were all hungry and pretty grumpy because of it (despite the toys), so we stopped at Target for dinner on the way home. The Baby and I split an order of chicken tenders and a Yoplait yogurt (the kind I don't normally buy because its low fat content is counteracted by high-fructose corn syrup, which bumps the calorie total to an obscene number for low-fat yogurt), The Girl settled on a beef hot dog (organic mac & cheese was unavailable), and The Boy had his usual Pizza Hut personal pan pizza. We did shop a bit afterwards for pantry staples and a new kitchen rug.