The Great Chick-Fil-A Slime Disaster

MOO!

Every Tuesday night Chick-Fil-A has Family Night. My husband works late every Tuesday night, so every Tuesday night the kids and I can be found at our local Chick-Fil-A. Sometimes we even go when it's not Tuesday. In fact, I often find myself starting stories with, "This one time, at Chick-Fil-A..."

I'm not joking when I say they know us by name. Like, every employee knows each of our names. 

(By the way, did you know that Chick-Fil-A offers a service called "Mommy Valet"? You can actually take your carfull of kids through the drive-thru, order and request the Mommy Valet service. When you pay at the window they will ask you if you need a highchair, placemats, condiments, etc, and when you finally herd all your little ones inside, the employees will have your table all set up for you! Amazing!)

So this one time, at Chick-Fil-A, it was Family Night. We LOVE Family Night. On Family Night they always have some sort of theme or craft like Superhero Night or Pirate Night or Glue-A-Bunch-Of-Crap-On-Construction-Paper-Which-Will-End-Up-Crumpled-On-The-Floor-Of-The-Minivan Night. The boys LOVE the activities and I LOVE the fact that I get 10 minutes alone with my Cobb Salad while they complete said activity. On this particular family night it happened to be Make-Your-Own-Slime-Night (the theme could have had something to do with science, but I wasn't exactly paying attention. I was with my salad).

As the boys gleefully rushed back to our table with their little cups of slime, I knew this could only end in one of 2 ways:

1) I put the little cups in my bag for safekeeping until they somehow "get lost" in the trash can OR

2) I can spend the next week picking dry crusted slime out of my carpet and off of the furniture. 

I decided to go with option 1. 

Of course, the minute we returned home they remembered their little treasures and cried, "Where is our sliiiime? Can we play with our slliiiime now, Mommy?"

Drat! My plan is foiled!! But I WILL NOT succumb to option 2!! 

"Alright, boys, you may play with your slime, but you can only play with it outside! DO NOT bring it inside! Now, where do we play with it?? Outside, that's right."

For a few brief minutes that night our normally chaotic house was peaceful. I could hear the boys giggling as they stretched and poked their slime outside on the porch. I sat just inside the door nursing the baby and checking Facebook just being present in the moment. 

Look at this serene family atmosphere you've created, Momma! You are really getting the hang of this mother-of-3 thing. I mean, before you know it, you're going to be writing an advice blog for other mothers!

Of course, in parenting, the second you begin to think that you have it even a tiny bit figured out, your child will be right there to prove you wrong. So, so wrong.

"NNNOOOOO!" wailed Jack from the porch. He burst through the door in hysterics. 

“I (sob) PUT IT (sob) IN MY HAIR (sob) AND IT’S GETTING IN MY EYYYYYYYYYEEES!”

I watched in horror as my son frantically pawed at his greasy head, sending tiny beads of blue slime, as if in slow motion, soaring through the family room. I confess, at that moment I was less concerned about the possibility of Jack going blind and more agitated about how to clean the slime-droplet-coated carpet.

What's a Momma to do? She takes a picture.

A bath, one haircut and a professional carpet cleaning later, our home is now slime-free.

Tonight marks one month since the Great Chick-Fil-A Slime Disaster. So, to celebrate our recovery, we went to Family Night at Chick-Fil-A.

And, I kid you not, as we walked in I noticed a little sign informing patrons of the Family Night activity.

It said “Make Your Own Silly Putty!”