Psyche!

When a phone call starts with, "I've got a proposition for you," you've got to be wary. Especially if the caller is your husband and he's at work for some crisis, you've got to be wary. He went on to tell me that there was some essential equipment that he needed so if I brought it (along with the children), I would be treated to a nice dinner on the company's dime. It wasn't too shabby a deal, especially since That has been asking to go to a fancy restaurant for his birthday.

It takes some time to get each child dressed nicely for an evening on the town, especially since 2 of them are girls. I'm just thankful that Princess doesn't wear make-up or I'd have to take a couple of hours to get ready.

We weren't able to get reservations at the place that That had picked out, but Hubby's boss had a favorite restaurant that was a good second choice. They serve high end Italian food. My son didn't want to have Italian food because on Monday, he'll be attending a pizza party for his Knowledge Master team. I suggested he order a risotto or ravioli -- just try something different. This restaurant had nary a pizza in sight. It was very fancy. To give you an idea, when I entered I thought to myself this is not a place that has high chairs. I was right, sort of. The one high chair that was there was in use. Thankfully, after that family was done, we were given the high chair for Lil'T.

That ordered a venison ravioli which was so good he didn't even offer me a taste. The girls had gnocchi which was as close to a kid friendly meal as they could muster. Hubby had penne with salmon and I had the Chilean sea bass. I think I'll have good dreams about that for a long time.

In fancy restaurants, they don't give you a dessert menu. Instead they bring a tray that showcases all the desserts. I think they know that once you lay eyes on those treats, there really is no going back. You must have some. You should have seen the kids' eyes when the server brought out the tray. We all placed our orders and the tray was whisked away by the server for the neighboring table.

Lil'T didn't like that one bit.

There was some whining crescendoing into a full out wail. I did my best to comfort her but I was off my game because it was kind of funny. We tried to explain that our desserts would be coming, that those weren't ours. She was having none of it.

Next time we'll just tell the waiter to leave the tray and to just put together a new one. Showing a kid all those goodies and then taking them away is just mean.