A night out with the kids...All on my own!! Am I nuts?

Jeff is floating the Hanford Reach with his scouts and finally getting to do something he's wanted to do for a long time. I'm happy for him. When he told me what he was planning a couple of weeks ago I immediately started thinking of all the fun stores I could go to or the girl's night I could plan. The only problem was I didn't know my babysitters were all going to be at girl's camp. So, tonight I decided to take my four children to Red Robin and get myself my beloved Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich.
I signed up for the birthday club thing and I've been waiting to get my free sandwich offer all month. So, we take off and on the way I gave the usual speech about how we act in restaurants. Mom: D , what do we do at Restaurants?
D: Eat!
Mom: Yeah, but I meant, how do we act?
Mom: Do we stand up and jump on the seat, or run around like yeahoos?
D and E: NOOOOOO!
Mom: Okay, so we are all going to mind our manners, right?
D, E, W: Yeeeeees. We will mom.

And they did do rather well until they saw....

Balloons!!!
That's when the trouble began. When there's balloons there's always tears. I can almost guarantee it.
Somebody's pops, or it's not tied on their arm right. Tonight, I nearly got one stuck in the ceiling fan above our table. I was getting us all situated and didn't realize that the balloon I was holding was getting smacked by the ceiling fan. A guy at the next table got my attention and pointed up. It could've been ugly. I mean, I always feel like people are staring at me anyway because I'm young and I have four children under the age of 7. I'm just really glad that the balloon didn't get sucked up in the fan for all to see.

We left Red Robin and headed to Target. We parked and I heard the dreaded POP sound that accompanies children and balloons. My daughters balloon was dead and she was not happy. One gone, two to go. We walk in and my second son E, asked to have his tied to his arm. I told him to hold on a sec while I put the baby in the cart......it was to late. The balloon floated up to the ceiling. "Moooooooom I wanted you to tie it to me so that wouldn't happen." Two down, one to go. And then a miracle. My oldest son, D said, "Here E you can have mine." He slipped it off his arm and handed off to his bewildered brother. I was delighted with my son's generosity and was happy for the silence, but then my daughter wanted to be part of the balloon give away. To my complete surprise, E, took the balloon off of his arm and said, "Here you go W, I want you to have it". I knelt down and grabbed all three of my children and told them that I was so proud of them for being so nice to each other.
Do you think we made it out the door with the 3rd balloon. NOT ON YOUR LIFE. I would love to know just how many balloons actually make it home to the safety of a child's bedroom. Let me refrain. There is no safety there either, because mad siblings often find ways to get even. Popping balloons usually do the trick.