New Year's Day- family day

Well, Happy New Year!
We rang in the new year with my very good friend of 10 years and her 3, soon to be 4, children. Now that we are boring parents, we have resolved to spend New Year's Eve with each other and the kids every year. Our husbands usually have to work, which they did, and our kids LOVE staying up late and counting down the ball drop. This year did not disappoint.
My 2 oldest stayed the night at her house this year, so we had to go pick them up in Euless today. Since we were up that way, I decided it would be a wonderful idea to take the kids to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. We had not been since my oldest was very young. I envisioned a wonderful family outing with the kids mezmorized by all the animals and show the restaurant provides. Well, do I live in la-la land!! We get to the mall around 2pm. By the time we get up to the elephant to put our name on the list, we were given 3pm to come back for a table and the twins had started in with "eat, eat". I knew we had some time to hold them off if we kept them busy. I have also been looking for a new side-by-side stroller and wanted to look at Burlington Coat Factory. So, off we went. Down the mall to the store. We went to the back and found a jogging stroller that I and the girls liked. We purchased it and wanted to start using it right away. The store was not very helpful with making that happen. So, my wonderful husband and I drug the huge box out into the mall and stood by an entrance and put the stroller together. Yes, a little embarassing for my 8 year old. She could not believe we were doing that. The twins were yelling "eat!" and by this time it was just about 3. We were able to put the whole thing together without tools except for the footplate. That required a phillips head screw driver. My husband ran over to the information desk, which happened to have a flat head screw driver. Who knew!!
We made a mad dash, the girls in their new stroller and my husband pushing the big kids in the old one, back to Rainforest, just in time to make our appointment. As soon as we walked through the store and walked up to the fish tank entrance, one of the twins lost it. She was tired and hungry and did not want to go into a dark room with loud music and wild animals. She became a spider monkey attached to me. She would not look at anything. I could not get her to drink anything or put her pacifier in her mouth. She just screamed and cried. And I mean screamed! Luckily the place was so loud no one could really hear her. Her sister was wonderful. She loved looking around at all the animals. My son, the middle child, was also whining and put his coat up over his head and would not order anything. So, between one child hiding her head in my chest and screaming and one pouting, we were up for a wonderful lunch. Finally, the food came. All the children ate, and the child who was upset finally sat in her chair and ate. I usually split a meal between the twins and there is plenty to eat. Well, not this time. There was hardly enough for one to eat. As soon as they ate, the cranky one started in again. Nothing on anyone else's plate was what she wanted. So, we went on eatting and trading the baby until we were done. The other twin sat happily in her highchair dancing and eatting.
As, we came out, my husband took the twins out and I had the pleasure of helping the older two make Build-a-Bears (and spent a fortune for stuffed animals). This was the first time either of them had made one. They were very happy and I was just glad to be out of there. We left the mall with the cranky twin crying all the way. We probably should have left with her from the beginning, but I felt like it would have really dissapointed the other kids. They had fun dispite the screaming and I did manage to get a few good pictures. They all fell asleep in the car as we headed off the Gran and Papa's.
So much for a fun family day...