An Afternoon with the Wonk Potatoes

Last Friday Riley and I spent the afternoon together. I needed to take him to get his school shoes and school supplies, and I figured we could do a few fun things as well.

We first wished Kate a very Happy Birthday by texting a picture to Aunt E and Uncle Jeff and then FaceTiming with the birthday girl a bit later. (They were at the beach for a few days with friends.) So fun to see her on her birthday morning!

We dropped Rory off at Nola and Nopsi’s just before noon and headed to Clearview Mall. Our first stop was Ponseti’s for school shoes. I got the same exact shoe that he had last year since they held up really well, only in a size 11.5 instead of a 10.5. My boy is growing!

 

After shoes we walked over to Target to get school supplies. The SCR Co-Op offers the option to pre-purchase school supply packs in May, so buying school supplies isn’t super fun. All we had to get were things like Kleenex, Lysol wipes, and paper towels that aren’t included in the pack. But Riley managed to sucker me into also getting him a bag of Airhead bites and a big green crayon bank, which he of course is using as a Lego bad guy jail.

Before we left the mall in search of lunch, I treated Riley to a bouncing session. He hadn’t done that in a long time and guess what? He didn’t really need any help! He jumped and bounced all on his own. He didn’t fly quite as high as he did with assistance, but he enjoyed it all the same.

 

Once Riley was done with bouncing, we switched to another location. I remembered that there’s a Dat Dog in Lakeside Mall now, and Riley’s face lit up when I suggested going there for lunch. The menu was unfortunately limited but we had a good time sitting in the food court eating together.

 

Riley took a looooong time to finish his lunch. Once he finally did, I treated him to dessert from Great American Cookies. He picked a sugar cookie with lots of colored sugar on top.

On our way back to the car we happened to pass by the Disney Store, which had a big Star Wars section right in front. And I made the mistake of steering Riley over to it. However, he was very good and respected my rule of only picking out one thing for me to buy for him. He chose a die-cast model of Darth Vader’s TIE fighter.

 

And then we passed by the Hallmark Store for the second time that day. We had no choice since it was right by the door to the parking garage, but of course there was Star Wars stuff in the window that caught Riley’s eye. I promised him we would stop by again on our way out, and I stayed true to my word, even though I had just gotten him something at the Disney Store.

Riley picked out a little stuffed Darth Vader, part of Hallmark’s Itty Bitty line. There were about 10 different Star Wars characters, as well as lots of other options. I thought R2-D2 was the cutest, so I got that for Rory. Riley also spotted Elsa, which he insisted we buy to give to Claire.

We finally left Lakeside and drove to meet Dana so we could deliver Claire’s Elsa to her. I got a picture text an hour later; Claire was apparently so excited to receive her surprise gift from Riley. Sweet girl.

Our last stop of the day was Nola and Nopsi’s to get Rory. He was still sleeping when we got there, but Riley was thrilled at the uninterrupted time he had to show Nola and Nopsi his new prizes.

It ended up being a really fun afternoon with the wonk potatoes. He and I haven’t seen eye to eye the majority of this summer; in fact, it feels like I’m always yelling at him. His behavior has been a challenge for me, to say the least. So it was really nice just to be one-on-one with him and have some good quality Mama and Riley time.

Not that I’m not ready for school to start. Because I totally am.

Although we have done lots of fun things this summer and made many great memories. In fact, another Summer Days post is coming your way soon!