For as long as we've been going to Bumpers, we've been saving our tickets. But the other day Colin became obsessed with what he calls a "gumdrop machine" in the display case. He told me that he wanted to buy it for Mommy to help her feel better, like when she has a sore back and a scratchy throat. The gumdrop machine costs 1000 tickets.
C was a little upset on New Years Eve because we didn't go to Bumpers. He was sure that all the gumdrop machines would be gone, taken by other kids. He wanted me to call them and ask if they still had one.
On New Years Day we went to Oshaughnessy's and left about 5:30. We were subjected to about 10 minutes of crying. One of the reasons being that we still hadn't made it to Bumpers. Back at home, we carefully counted out 1000 tickets in lenghts of 10 and in bundles of 100. Our plan was to be waiting outside their door when they opened tomorrow at 10:00 AM.
Colin loaded the tickets (and buddy Pete) into his luggage, and placed the luggage in the car. We arrived at Bumpers about 10:05. He was very excited to see that they still had two gumdrop machines left in the case. He went up to the counter and said, "Could you please give me a gumdrop machine?" The employee was a little confused at first, until she saw him pull the ticked bundles out of his luggage. I was worried they wouldn't be accepted since we'd taken them home, rather than turn them in each time before leaving. She told us we had 1060 tickets according to the scale, because she didn't take the rubber bands off.
Colin picked out a gumdrop machine with a big smiley face on it, and put it in the luggage. With the 60 extra tickets he got a small box of "Jaw Busters" to go in the machine. Then we played a few games and did some other shopping at Ross with Mom. After that we got some tripleberry drinks at Orange Julius, went to Old Navy, and then home to try out the machine:
