A Holiday in Ceramic Hell

So what do you do when both kids and hubby have off three days in a row? (Said to self: scream, cry, roll into fetal position, find closest spa/resort and sign up for a 4 hour massage).

All right, I'll try to act like an adult now. It's so much easier during the summer months. We can walk, swim, go to the playground. All of which by the way do not put a dent in our wallet.

The winter months are less forgiven. Sure there are things to do, but when everyone is trying to cut back, I begin to run out of ideas. No one wants to spend the entire day in the house; especially me.

So last night while sitting in my office/bathroom I decided to look through that cool coupon book we bought from Potter's school for only $25. Since I rarely go anywhere without a coupon in hand, I figured I could look through this book for some ideas.

Interestingly enough, I found this ceramic shop not too far from us. It had a great website that showed a wall of ceramics from which your child could choose. The ceramics were an additional cost, but really, how much could that be?

Holy Fort Knox Batman! Let me just tell you how expensive this can be. Apparently there is a sitting fee. (You know, the pleasure of allowing your butt to rest upon a piece of furniture which they supply...what?) Since it was a holiday, the sitting fees were cut in half. This sounded like good news until they informed me that since I was already getting a special I could no longer use my coupon. (This was a sign from God that I ignored...Shame!)

The kids, Hubby and myself all picked a ceramic and got down to business. Need I not mention what a three year old does with paint. It truly is priceless.

The whole experience took about an hour (way too long) but I had to finish painting that darn bunny that Scooter picked out for me. Hubby got away with painting a mug which required one shade. Except when he realized Wifey would be taking a bit longer, he added polka dots (Freaky)

So Hubby took the kids to the potty while I headed to the register. "That will be $74. for today," the woman said politely. Needless to say,I should have been the one in the potty, because I think I just crapped myself. I gave the nice lady my credit card. At least I earn rewards toward the new car that by the way I can't afford either. (Only 15,000 more trips to ceramic hell and it could be mine.)

Once upon a time ceramic classes were for the poor kids. At least that is how it worked in my neighborhood. It was the one activity that most parents could afford. Every Saturday my brother and I would head to ceramic class for our weekly dose of toxins (no longer a worry due to all the tree huggers; myself included). Boy, have times changed!

We decided against heading into Philadelphia to visit a museum for fear we would spend too much money. So the plan failed, but it was worth every penny!