I don't know why exactly, but I can bribe my girls into ANYTHING by offering them a trip downtown. They will clean their rooms, put their clothes away, and basically do all of my bidding for hours on end. I just have to drive into Pittsburgh and let them out of the car. There doesn't have to be any big event or anything; they just want to exist amongst the tall buildings.
Add an event, and we're REALLY golden.
Thus, I used the Arts Festival against them all last week. Day after day was filled with productive positivity as they did whatever I asked because I told them I would let them walk around Pittsburgh for a while. It was SO fun. For me. And they survived the torture that was cleaning up after themselves for days on end.
When it came time to reward them for their efforts, we made our way downtown. Mila decided along the way that there would be milkshakes involved, which is playing dirty, frankly. I am in a Milkshake Club, after all. Of course I want milkshake, but not when there's funnel cake to be found. That whole thing ended badly for Mila because I'm mean and selfish (FUNNEL CAKE, Y'ALL), but she forgot all about it once she was people watching and looking for dogs and checking out all of the cool things at the Arts Festival. (I should probably apologize to all the people who are now suffering from hearing loss because of the "LOOOOK! DOOOGGY!" screeching that kept happening. Sorry!)
Alexis is old enough to geniunely appreciate the art, so she had fun as well. And then the girls complained they were hot ...
There's exactly one way to fix that. And HOOBOY did they fix it.
They were both really very happy to be dripping wet and declared it to be the Best. Day. Ever.
Which, let's sum that up. I drove to do a thing I wanted to do. I let them walk around for a few minutes, eat the food I wanted to eat, and then dumped water on them. AND THEY LIKED IT.
If only pleasing kids were always so easy.