Photos courtesy of Ryan Prouty

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Oh, what we will do for free food...

Chick-Fil-A had their giveaway day on Friday. That meant if you went in to the store in full cow costume, you got a free meal. It was just what we needed because we were sitting at our garage sale all morning and had no fancy plans for lunch afterward. We did our garage sale at our friends Harvey and Felicia Johnson's house. They moved in just down the street from us just a couple weeks before we moved. They helped us out tremendously and also offered for us to place any items that didn't make the cut after we moved in their garage sale. That location was PRIME and we had a steady stream of shoppers both days!

Anyway, getting back on track...The site had a "starter kit" that I printed off on line onto card stock that included cow's ears and a nose/mouth. We snagged some old t-shirts of Paul's and drew spots on them and wrote the slogan "Eat Mor Chik'n" on the back. Riley was adamant that he wasn't wearing any of the costume. He didn't want to make a shirt, and he was definitely too cool to wear the ears or nose!! I said that was fine, but he would have to sit and watch everyone eat. He came around before we left:


Sarah had NO reservations however! She even found her sunglasses matched!

The ears needed to be taped in place or they wouldn't stay. We all risked the loss of hair for the sake of the ears!
Such good sports!Here is the proof that we actually went out in public...to the mall food court no less! NINE people all walking into the mall dressed this way caused quite a spectacle. I just kept my sunglasses on and pretended not to notice.

We ditched the costumes and sat down to our NINE free meals. We got to choose any meal from the menu (that included fries and a drink too!) and got free refills. I even let the kids choose whatever soda they wanted (now that was a really big treat...each of the boys chose something with caffeine!!) Happy faces and full bellies! Riley even said it was all worth it and that he would do it again!!

Thanks to my friend Kate for the tip and forwarded e-mail with the details about this special by Chick-Fil-A! It reminded me a lot of Melanie's experience last year (that I thought was just a few months ago and surprised me that it was so long ago), but I had so much fun reading back through your blog Melanie! I guess we have something to look forward to once a year...we'll save the t-shirts for next time!

So, after all the moving chaos has subsided and the garage sale is over, we decided we were ready to enjoy a day of relaxing. After lunch today, Sarah, Gabe, Holden, Alayna and I drove over to the community pool for our neighborhood (bigger pool with no screens, more like a real outdoor pool...oh, and it has fabulous lounge chairs...because any chairs would be an improvement over our nonexistent ones!!) Anyway, we were only there about an hour when Alayna had a slight accident. She jumped into the pool but didn't jump out far enough and hit her face on the edge on the way in. She handled it really well and we went straight home for a bandaid and ice. This is how she looks after serious icing:

...almost unrecognizable! She is such a trooper and hasn't complained another second, I am just worried about what she will look like in the morning! So much for relaxing! I hope I will have more time this week to catch you all up on what we are up to. Its time to get the kids to doing some fun things, now that the craziness of moving is behind us! We are so enjoying having another girl in the house to balance out the testosterone in this place. Sarah, you are such a blessing and we will miss you when you go home! I am so glad you are staying longer! John and Kim, thanks for sharing her!

5 comments:

Rikki Kreger said...

I love the cow costumes!! That is too funny--and well worth it!

Lynn - A Foodie and Her Family said...

Love the Cow costumes!

Stephanie said...

I'll do most anything for food (free or not!). Wish I could have been there to see the whole group walk in. I'd be rolling on the floor! Hope Alayna's eye gets better soon, that's quite a shiner!

Anonymous said...

You all are the cutiest cows I've ever seen. And what a deal of a great Chic Filet dinner. Such a great idea Travis, and, as usual, you came up with a fun plan to enjoy. See, Riley, it was all worth it, huh? Ohhh, Alayna, your sweet face is too precious to share with any concrete, please be careful. Thank the Lord that your garage sale was a success and that things are starting to slow down abit.
Love and hugs to all,
G. & G. P.

safmomma said...

I'm so sad I missed it! I can't believe that it's been a year, and I have another child that would fit into that costume. I'm glad that someone carried on spectacle. Maybe next year.