Success

Success. In a word that describes Ameritowne yesterday.

We get up early to make sandwiches for lunch, showers and a general getting ready to go. We head out just before 8 am. 2 hours later we arrive and at a glance I realize there is something wrong. I was at the wrong location. See they have two locations and I was at the Belmar location. Luckily they had the address to their main building on their door. I punch this into the GPS and it turns out it's only 15 min. away and we were already 5 min late. Owell can't do anything about that now right? On we go. Finally 30 min after we were supposed to be there we enter the door to Ameritowne. It is so cute. Honestly, there are things that every town needs or really wants. It is a permanent towne set up for kids. The teller tables are smaller, the newsroom is teeny and it's all the mom's can do to contain that inner child and not play too. NO Fair. LOL. I talked to at least 3 mom's who also wanted to play in the make believe towne. I will share all the pics. Perhaps in a sideshow, hmmm . Oh yeah back to the task at hand.

I find were all the kids need to be and apologize to the parent volunteers about our tardiness. Luckily almost all knew I was from pueblo so we had a very long drive for this. I got a volunteer packet. It had goodies for all those dedicated parents to enjoy. We got coupons in the packet for a drink, chips or a cookie and a newspaper. There was info on what else the Bank offers in way of Bank services and the description of Ameritowne and International Towne. After this I rotate around to spend time with each of the kids. I walked around with them during breaks and helped them decide how to spend their paycheck. Isn't that cute. They each got a paycheck they had to take to the bank. They had to fill out a deposit slip and wait in line. Oh and they had to quack as they entered the bank. This gives the police officers opportunity to do their job by giving you a ticket. Isn't that just the cutest thing ever? Anyway the kids were to leave so much in their accounts when depositing their paychecks. So the kids got $20.00 in Ameritowne dollars to spend around towne. After they ran out of money they had to write checks. All this they were to keep track of in their registers. I waited with each kid as they went to the bank, I snapped pictures and made threats of bright lipstick kisses if said child wouldn't at least look at the camera. I swear my boys are so hard to get a picture of these days. See what I have had to resort to? I mean really do you think I look good in bright red lipstick?

The college offered classes. This was done by watching a short video on the college degree of their choice. Austin watched broadcasting and got a laminated degree. Again how cute?!Conner had the most free time as he had to go out and about to survey citizens of Ameritowne as to which shop had the best customer service. He also needed to gather the donations to various charities. Colin had to write about 20 checks for the college. I think he has it down pat now. LOL. Austin served endless customers soda, cookies and ice cream. All the time he had to wear an McDonald's cap. The mayor and judge had given speeches and cut the ribbon for towne hall calling Ameritowne open. I was at the wrong angle for that one. Several Bank employees were there to help out and make sure that everything ran smoothly. One of them talked to me briefly about putting Austin in International Towne. I said we had done this about a year ago. Most shops sold trinkets and the boys bought some cute stuff. At the end of towne the managers of the shops gave out certificates of appreciation to their best employee.

On our way home we hit another mall. I am going to go to all the malls there just so I remember what a real mall looks like. Trust me if you lived here you would understand. But that is another story. Austin was so stinking cute. We had a nice chat about their day. Here is a bit from Austin and my conversation that I just have to share.

Austin: Man this one kid made me maaaddd
Me: Really? How is that?
Austin: Well he ordered a coke so I get the cup and start to fill it up. Just as I get about half way the kid says "make that a diet coke". (It must be stated at this point Austin had the look of a veteran fast food worker that had to deal with irritating customers all day. It was so funny)So I pour out the drink and start to fill it with diet coke and half way through the kid says "Oh you could've mixed them".

I could barley contain myself at how much this affected Austin.Colin said he had to write at least 20 paychecks and thought the yearbook photographer was overpaid. I guess he got the gist of what it takes to run a college.Conner said he had alot of work by having to ask all those citizens which shop had the best customer service and then getting the donations. He also said this enabled him plenty of free time to enjoy the towne. All the kids said they wanted to do the same exact job again next time. We end up at Park Meadows Mall and boy it's a nice one. They even have valet parking. We walked around that and then headed out and home. We had such a blast.

Here are some pics