The calm before the storm....

Last Saturday was amazing. We spent the entire day as one big happy family. Adam didn't play tennis, I didn't workout and this opened up hours upon hours of "free time" The men gardened, the women played soccer in the backyard, the whole family took a nap, then we went hiking in the "deep dark forest" behind Smith field. And finally we did the unthinkable: we took the whole famdamily out to Cameron's for dinner. Now if you know us, and know us well you will know that is A. crazy and B. a first. We haven't gone out to dinner in maybe a year. Sad, I know. But between having two little kids, and not much cashola, it just makes sense to stay home. Oh and when you have a personal chef like me, why eat out when you can stay home and enjoy acorn squash and black bean empanadas (that's right folks). But it was quickly approaching dinner time and we had already told Charlie we would Kate ice cream after we hiked. The little voice in my head said, maybe we should eat dinner before we devour some nilla.

So we took deep breaths, prepared for the good, bad, and ugly, and stepped into the family restaurant.

And it rocked.

Here's what happened in that fun hour:

I got to enjoy this fat mirror pond. I'm a light weight so one good cold beer is all I need. yum.

Charlie was in heaven. video games and TVs everywhere. I even let him play a shoot the bag game, I know I've come a long way. Guns and dolls is my new philosophy. Let him play gun games as long as he also plays lovingly with dolls.

I don't know if it was that she was hungry or tired after running for a straight hour, but this sweetheart sat in her big girl chair and colored for easily 20 minutes. Usually she tries desperately to run into the kitchen, or eat crayons, we are turning major corners here. And I am proud.

There were big TVs everywhere, which as Adam pointed out was nice. A few months ago if we had tried this both kids would be running in opposite directions. But these TVs really distracted them, especially Charlie. The first 5 minutes or so he kept saying, mommy is it ok I watch that?

TV is almost non-existent at our house, except for a few days a week he watches some Curious George with my mom, so he was totally absorbed in sports.

Kate didn't care about video games or TV, she was just so happy to eat. This little porker ate a whole half of a veggie burger, most of Adam's fries, and was in love with her pumpkin ice cream.

Of course when I looked back again, I saw this, the competitive side of Adam shined thru as he put Charlie down and was determined to beat the game. After dinner, when they played again I noticed he gave charlie the gun controller that didn't work, while using the one that did himself. So Charlie thought he was playing while Adam was kicking butt, a win win I guess. I am not a big fan of video games at all, in fact I really think that they take away from family time and creative time. But all things in moderation. I doubt we will ever get any kind of video game thingy for Charlie, but when we come here we will gladly bust out the quarters.

Aunt Kate picks up a few shifts here and there, and although she was too busy to visit, it is always nice seeing her cute smile pass by....

The whole evening passed by so smoothly. When video games were done Charlie simply said, ok. When dinner was served he ate. He waited patiently for ice cream. When it was time to go there was no crying. Of course maybe the idea of playing on this old school british double decker bus helped:

It was a great day. And a good thing because the next morning was the beginning of the longest week of my life....