Sailing through the IKEA Aisles

I met a friend and her two girls at Ikea the other day. We chose IKEA because I'd seen an advertisement that "kids eat free" and who doesn't like a free breakfast?! Not until I got home did I realize that we had actually paid for our breakfasts...maybe I dreamt up the whole "free" part of it...

So, here we are tooling around IKEA with four girls all under the age of four. A mad circus of babies throwing peas on the ground, opening every single drawer and cabinet we pass (imagine, if you will. The whole store is about storage in small places!) and the two moms calling out ineffective instructions. "Girls! move over to the side. No, to the side by the rugs. Okay, the other side. No just stand there and don't move. Yeah, right in the middle of the aisle, that's perfect!" While they stood there holding hands looking at us like we were speaking Swedish or something. Good thing they're cute! (yeah right. Like that would have helped when I was childless and wandering IKEA without a care in the world and some kids were running free around me.)

I was really only going to look at a couple of storage options. I mean, I'm trying to keep track of two kids, I don't have enough arms to hold onto bookshelves and light fixtures and that cute throw pillow and those cheap glasses and those napkins and that spice rack that would totally revolutionize my kitchen!  But there were two adults...and we're both female so we're good at multi-tasking...  And before you know it we had one of the carts loaded with boxes and little girls...

So, there we were. Two women each pushing a small baby in a stroller/cart with one hand while trying to navigate the box loaded cart together with the other. Down the aisles of IKEA. A massive barge of boxes and kids sailing down the aisles, practically rudderless and certain to knock over something or someone. Shouts of "keep your feet up!" warning anyone in our path to make way...

We got ice cream as a treat when we finally made it out of the building.

We are women! We can do anything crazy! Even IKEA - 5 large boxes, 4 kids, 2 "strollers" and 1 successful shopping trip!  Next up, trying to put the furniture together...

Giant barge coming through!
(notice the wary onlookers behind us.)