Have you ever  been at a fun outing with kids and found that all the small people you’ve brought along are all either crying, whining, or both?

Yep, that’s your cue it’s time to leave.

When this happens I have to laugh. My kids LOVE fun outings, but I’ve found that many times their excitement and anticipation lead them to have an emotional breakdown either during or immediately following the activity.

Let me give you an example: today we went to an awesome indoor bounce house place. We’ve been before, but we go maybe three times a year so  they know what to expect but it’s mostly a novelty.

We went with friends, it was pretty empty (which is the best way to enjoy one of those places), and we went early so everyone was relatively happy when we arrived.

In anticipation of this fun outing, Harry Potter woke up at… 5:45am, by the time 10am rolled around he was exhausted (despite what he said).

AsthmaMan and the Princess slept in until 9am which I’m hope was just a fluke and not a sign of impending doom, so they were excited to be there.

Within 15 minutes of our arrival the Princess was screaming to get down (because she’s 1 and partially mobile), Harry Potter had and his best friend were having a fight (seriously Harry Potter don’t start the day by calling your BFF an idiot), and AsthmaMan was having a blast.

By the time we hit the 2 hour mark, the Princess had climbed the stairs to the point of exhaustion, Harry Potter had been injured three or four times, and AsthmaMan was still having a blast.

With two kids screaming it seemed like time to go. I’d planned ahead, I had their lunches packed in a mini cooler in the car, they were fed by the time we left the parking lot.

But then… the reality of running around for 2 hours hit AsthmaMan like a ton of bricks, and he cried the 15 minutes home because he “wanted to NAP!!!!!!!!!”

I’m not sure if I should call this a win or a loss.

On one hand the boys left tired, I saw other moms, and the Princess made it through another brother centric outing, but on the other hand they were all crying as we pulled out of the parking lot!

Kids are funny, heck adults are funny too! Sometimes the things we are the most excited about, are the things we end up enjoying the least because we’ve built them up so big in our minds! I’m counting today as a win, we made it out and back alive with our sanity mostly intact.