The Quest for Freebies

My blog update have become few and far between, largely attributed to little Ani.  The little peanut is wearing me out!  During the past week, she has been able to outlast Alexa in the energy department, a feat in and of itself, and she's definitely putting me to the test.  So much for cutting back on caffeine.....

Despite being a bit worn out from work and my crazy girls, we were able to enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend.  I took Friday off - unfortunately Damon worked - and Alexa, Ani and I went to a pool party at a friend's house.  There was a fireworks display not too far from our house, but Alexa wasn't too interested in going.  Rather, she happily fell asleep on the couch well-before the display was scheduled to begin.  I was a-ok with that, especially since I knew we had a busy Saturday in-store.

After swimming lessons on Saturday morning, the girls and I had some errands to run: Costco, some back-to-school shopping for Alexa (the quest for the perfect thin, no-show sock...don't ask) and a little grocery shopping.  Normally Alexa's not too enthused about errands that don't result in something fun for her, but not this time.  She's become a huge fan of grocery shopping and Costco for one simple reason...free samples.

Last Sunday evening, I had taken Ani and Alexa to Fry's (a local grocery store) to pick up the groceries for the week, and Alexa could not believe her good fortune.  Not only did she get to sample the deli meat and cheeses that I ordered, but a bakery employee gave her a full-sized chocolate chip cookie.  She was in heaven, even exclaiming "This is the best day ever!" to some very amused passersby.  Hmm...next year's birthday party could be a little different if it just takes a few free samples to make her happy ;)

Since the Fry's samples made her day, I knew the trip to Costco would be a whole new level of euphoria for her.  Sure enough, as soon as we entered the store, she was looking around like a hawk to find sample stands and see what kinds of samples people were eating.  I've never seen a kid so excited for a cup of water as Alexa was when we approached the Sparkletts display; the employee seemed ecstatic to have someone so enthused about what would normally be a D-grade sample.  The thrill of the samples only escalated from there - she sampled a scallop (I ended up eating that one), cake, ravioli, grapes, chips & dip, won tons, a taquito, juice and some sort of salad dressing.  Her quest for samples easily doubled the shopping time, but it was well-worth it to see her so happy, not to mention it provided a free snack to buy me some additional time for errands.

I have a feeling she's going to be requesting post-swim Costco runs on a more regular basis.  She's even requested that I bring her journal next time so that she can write down the names of the samples she tries.  I had to chuckle at that request, as I can't help but laugh picturing her walking around Costco with her notebook, writing the phonetic spelling of all the samples.

Maybe frequent Costco runs aren't such a bad idea; it does get pretty tough to think of new (indoor) summer activities in Arizona...

#1 Costco Fan...I'm sure Alstott would join her if he could.