Little math whiz

I was planning to take the kids to the Little Tot Drop In at the St Louis Park Rec Center today. It's a chance for the kids to run around and it's two dollars per kid. I was in the shower when Joe left and just moments after he yelled goodbye to me I remembered I only had one dollar. I yelled and yelled for him to see if he was still there. The kids came to see what was going on. Erik told me Joe had left and asked why I wanted him. I explained I wanted a couple dollars, but that we would raid his piggy bank for three dollars. He asked how much three dollars was. I asked if he knew which ones quarters are. He said they are the big circles. I said three dollars is four quarters, three times. So he went and got a piggy bank and made piles. When I came to check on him he had two piles of four quarters (which impressed me) but had run out of quarters. I found two in my jeans pocket, and we used dimes and nickels for the rest. I really think that if there had been twelve quarters in the bank he could have gotten me three dollars!

At the rec center they have several large vending machines and Erik wanted a snack when we left at 11:30 (lunchtime). I explained he'd had fruit snacks already and we were going home for lunch. But he was sooo hungry now. He was afraid by the time we got home he wouldn't be hungry anymore. So I reminded him we'd used our last nickel paying admission. He shuffled his feet a moment and said, "I wish we'd brung some more pennies."