Free Pancakes for Everyone!

Yesterday was free pancake day at IHOP! Free pancakes! Yes! Would we go? Of course we would! We would have syrup! We would have butter! We would get out of the house!

When we arrived at the House O' Pancakes, we were greeted by a group of the sweetest Shriners ever. Because free pancake day is also a fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network, the local Shriners were spending the day opening the door for patrons and handing out stickers and coloring books. Lincoln was excited about the coloring book; less so about the sticker (he may have cried when I asked if he wanted me to put it on his shirt. The answer was an emphatic, "NO! (whimper). I just want to save it for later..."). He is into saving things these days--mostly food, but apparently stickers, too.

Mr. B got to try pancakes for the first time! He was a fan. Not of eating them--of throwing them on the floor. Before we left I had to crawl under our table picking up tiny pieces of pancake. Don't let that piece on his face fool you. It probably ended up on the floor, too.

Lincoln, on the other hand, devoured his pancakes. These weren't the tiny, kid size pancakes, either. They were huge, plate size pancakes. Lincoln at 2 of them. Inhaled might be a better term. Before they brought the pancakes out, Lincoln noticed the assortment of syrup bottles on the table. He decided strawberry was the way to go. After eating a few bites, he decided to add some butternut to it (really, it is butter pecan, but mama read it wrong, so butternut it is). BUTTERNUT! AMAZING! He seriously went through about a quarter of the bottle.

After watching him happily eating his strawberry/butternut pancakes, I began to rethink my objection to butternut syrup. How could it be gross if Lincoln was so happy eating it? He just asked for his fourth pour of it! It must be delicious. Butternut syrup for everyone! I then found my hand reaching for the butternut syrup bottle and inexplicably pouring it on my own short stack. And that is the story of how I ruined my delicious pancakes. Ruined. Butternut syrup=disgusting.

Luckily, our fun was just beginning! Just after the butternut ruination, Bennett discovered how to get out of his high chair and began to climb over the side. Once that trick was learned, there was no getting him back in there. I also learned he had no intention of sitting on my lap, so I had the privilege of standing up and doing laps around the table while holding the baby for the rest of the meal. I believe it was at this point when the waitress attempted to sit a man and woman at the table next to us and they requested a different table on the other side of the restaurant. Too bad-I would have shared our butternut syrup.

The rest of the meal was kind of a blur, but went something like:

• Lincoln needs his pancake cut up into smaller pieces. In order to do this, I place Bennett down on the restaurant floor and let him look out the emergency exit door. At this point, there is pretty much no one sitting by us, so it wasn't like he was going to crawl under people's tables or something.
• I give Bennett a drink of my water. He spits out the water all over his shirt.
• Lincoln has stopped eating, but I notice there are 3 bites left on his plate. I tell him that it is ok if he is full...he doesn't have to finish it! That was a giant pancake. He looks worried and says, "Don't fwow it away! I still eating, Mama. Mama, you help me eat?" I then help him scoop his syrup soaked pancake bites onto his fork with one hand while Bennett pulls on my ponytail and I am powerless to stop him.
• They never bring us a check, so eventually I just gather everyone up and go to the register. Once I get there I learn that the waitress just cashed us out since all we had was the free pancakes. I had figured we'd still get a receipt or something. Now I know. 
• We dropped our donation in the box, then stood for 2 minutes in front of the door because apparently, the best time of the day to mop the entrance is right when a mom and her 2 kids are trying to leave.

This probably seems like I didn't have much fun, but really, it was pretty hilarious. We'll totally do it again next year, with the addition of one extra adult (right, Lucas?)