the amazing spewing tomatoe

So tonight we took the boys for the very first time inside Pizza Hut. We had some free buffett coupons so we thought we'd try out the buffett. I had high hopes for the boys first time inside the restraunt, unfortunatly I did not take into account all the bottled up, rainy day energy. My goodness. It was like a cat on speed. One would begin laughing hysterically at whatever he saw on t.v. while the other took center stage and began reciting every memorized line of Shrek. No need to point out which child did what because pretty soon they switched. So we're eating as fast as we can and I decide that while Scott finishes his pizza I'd like to get some salad. Older boy in tow, we head for the salad bar while younger boy is screeching, "I want some sawad! I want some toma-ta-dos!" So I come back with older boy, heaping plate of "sawad" goodies and an extra plate for little one. Now you will find out why I titled this blog the amazing spewing tomatoe. Pizza Hut does not have nicely sliced tomatoes like some other salad bars. They do however have those whole small round cherry tomatoes. Fresh and tasty as they are, they provided a brand new source of entertainment for our kiddos. Little one loves tomatoes, often eats them whole after sneaking them from the fridge. I now have to hide them or buy double just to have enough to last us till the next grocery trip. Anyway, today was no exception. The boy about fell over in love with the plate of tomatoes I placed in front of him. One at a time he would pick up the beauties and bite in causing a flow of tomatoe juice and seeds to fly across the table in every direction and thus causing my sweet boys to erupt in uncontrollable laughter. This game continued with each tomatoe until painfully we had to take the plate away after Scott got spewed on for the third time. Why did this craziness persist?? Everytime we tried to take the plate away little one would scream, throw his head back, and act as though he'd been beaten. Finally I convince Scott that it would be in everyone's intrest to stop the spewing and to take the plate and cut up the tomatoes. Of course this meant enduring the bawling until little got his plate back along with all the beauties. Finally, finally we think we're going to have some sense of a normal dinner out with the kids (I'm beginning to wonder if there is such a thing) and what do my ears percieve??? Sigh. Shrek. Not five seconds after the tomatoe incident of 2007, a Shrek commercial comes on. You would have thought a bomb had exploded on our table with all the shrieking and pointing and bouncing. I buried my face as the five other people in the restraunt looked over at us once again. Thankfully they had children as well who were almost as excited to be out as our children were. I flashed my best "mommy" smile to the other mom as I pulled oldest son back down to earth. When Scott finally finished his pizza (I had given up on my salad) I grabbed the boys and headed for the car while he paid. He came out laughing and told me the lady that rang us up told him we had the cutest kids she'd ever seen. I thought, yeah wait till you see the table. We did our best to clean up, but with so few napkins and so much tomatoe... you can guess what it looked like. And the boy? He had to have a bath. He had tomatoe seeds in his hair. Oldest? We're still hearing his terrific rendition of Shrek, only this time it's about how Shrek went and had pizza at the store with the "fun" tomatoes.

Will this always happen when we go out? Our boys are usually very well behaved in publicbut we haven't eaten inside a restraunt in forever, we are usually too busy and just hit a drive thru. I guess now we'll have to work on manners in public. And hopefully we will never again have to meet up with the amazing spewing tomatoe. Until next time, salad bar!