To market, to market...

I had to go grocery shopping today with the boys. I was determined not to get angry at them, especially since they were well on their way to full-blown obnoxious as we were heading out the door.
Several things were helpful:
I gave them each items to be on the lookout for.
I bribed them with promises of the free cookie at the end of the trip if they were good.
Spoiler: The only one that got a cookie was Noah.

Here we have the trip divided into two obvious categories:

The bad - By the time we were halfway down the first aisle, they were already starting to pick things up and ask if we could get them.
The good - for the first three aisles the bribe of the cookie actually worked.
The bad - Sam squatted down and growled at a mother with a two-year-old and a newborn as she tried and failed to slip past us.
The good - Noah was happily gazing at all the different kinds of crackers and saying "gack-ah".
The bad - Sam would swing around with his arms outstretched and nearly belted a poor woman (not the same one, thank goodness!).
The good - When Noah got his cookie, we still had about 10 minutes of shopping to do, but he was content and kept saying "Mmmmm.....goo-ckie."
The bad - By aisle four, Sam and Caleb both lost their cookies for continued ignoring of rules such as "Don't push the cart until I'm ready" and "No running in the aisles!"
The good - uh....
The bad - Caleb shrieked "Don't leave me!!" twice when I was merely going a bit further down the aisle as he was getting some cereal.
The good - oh yeah, when it came time to check out, the boys were anxious to help in putting the food on the belt and then bagging it for me. We actually got quite a system going. Sam would get the can off the belt, hand it to Caleb, then hand it to Mom. Meanwhile, Noah was busy getting every cookie crumb into his mouth off his fingers.
The bad - the food we so carefully put on the belt, with the heavy stuff in front and the "squishables" in back was squished anyway when the boys found that red button at the end and pushed it until EVERYTHING was within arms reach. Now we just have to stick a straw through the banana peel and suck it out.
The good - we finally arrived home, Sam and Caleb decided they didn't want to play outside, I was free to make lunch, and now they're all asleep.