Date night

Last night Knox and I had an impromptu date.  Stephen is on his third and final week of travel (can I get an amen?), so we took advantage of the time with just us.  We headed up to Collin Creek Mall, which is less than a mile from our house.  It used to be my hang out in Middle/High School, and though it's changed quite a bit, it's still the same in so many ways. 

One way it has changed is with the new play area.  We don't get there too often, as it's mostly really crowded, but we decided to give it a go and it did not disappoint.  We went around 6:15pm, thinking most kids would be eating dinner and it wouldn't be crowded.  Wrong.  There were still a lot of kids, but it worked out nicely for us. 

He played and played, and boxed out all of the other kids from taking his Jeep.  We're working on it, promise.  

He started getting hungry, so we pushed all of the buttons in the elevator and finally reached the second floor and Chick-Fil-A.  While eating, I spotted Amazing Jake's.  I've never been inside, but have heard from others it's sort of like Dave and Busters.  I thought it had the potential to be a fun adventure before we had to leave for bedtime, and it did NOT disappoint.

There were two levels.  The bottom level was a food court and movie theater, and the top level housed a go-cart track, bumper cars, two carnival-esque rides for the littles, a carousel, and a lot of games.  A lot.  

By far the best part:  Knox has no clue that he's not really playing.  He would push all of the buttons and the lights would go crazy and he thought it was the coolest thing.  And it was all FREE.  So fun.  It might be our new summer (air conditioned) hang out when there's nothing else to do.  I literally had to drag him out of there, kicking and screaming.  He cried all the way to the car...he loved it!

Putting some pennies from the bottom of my purse in the machine.

Admiring the games with trucks and beep beeps!

Fireball.  This was his favorite, mainly because of the music.  

Really...he loved the music:

I can't wait to go back with Stephen.  And maybe we'll drop $5 to see Fireball in action.