Family Night

What a day it was. A doozy of a day. I won't say much more than that, but it was one day I just felt like my head was spinning in awe of events. 'Nuff said about that...

Tonight was the first night all week we were ALL home at the same time. If you know me at all, I treasure those times. I am a homebody (though I love traveling too...go figure). I am happiest when we are all together. That is why Child 1's baseball schedule is so tough on me. It isn't that I am not happy for him to play a team score. I want to encourage him in his interests. It is just that it is such a hectic schedule...our family time is greatly reduced. Thus, tonight, I felt the need for FAMILY NIGHT.

After the day, I just couldn't face making a dinner (which would have involved a trip to the grocery store, something else I couldn't face with the crew). Thankfully I have a husband who doesn't question me on that, he just says, "Where do you want to go?" While waiting for him to get home from work, we just came home and headed outdoors. I have some more pictures of my little monkeys that I will share tomorrow. Tonight I am miserable (as in ate too much) and don't feel like walking into the kitchen to get the camera card. :)

The weather has just been beautiful. The kind of beautiful where I just want to stop time. I know it won't last. Soon the rains will come or the temps will get really hot. But for today, I enjoyed it.

I just lounged (which emotionally was all I could do at that point...did I mention it was a doozy of a day???) while the girls and Child 4 played. (Child 1 was at my parents' house enjoying time with them)

When Mark came home, we hopped in the car, stopped by to pick up Child 1, and let Family Night begin. We went to a Tex Mex restaurant that recently opened up near our house. While Mexican food is probably not my favorite cuisine, with the kids, it is perfect (except for Child 1 who complains a lot...he doesn't like it at all). We get baskets of chips immediately. With the youngest, who right now is only living in the here and now, the chips are a God-send...like manna from heaven. Okay, maybe not quite that big, but then again, have you seen the child when he doesn't get his "nack" right away?

We got pretty tickled at dinner time. Child 4 was in his cheesy mode. He played "peekaboo" with a man at a nearby table (who thankfully goes to our church). He kept "making eyes" at the waitress. At one point, I noticed he was turned around putting on a show. I realized there were a few of the female restaurant staff members standing there just giggling watching him. (I always wonder about their thoughts, since a couple of them were obviously Latino...what do they think of this little Hispanic kid with a very white family?) It was quite entertaining.

After dinner, we headed home. When we got home, we took a family walk which is one of my favorite activities. I get the 30 minutes of exercise and enjoy time with the family. It started off a little rough, but once that child calmed down, it was very enjoyable. One child rode her bike, another rode a scooter, the third ran from driveway to driveway, and we just tried to keep up. And the youngest just loves walks. One of our favorite parts was watching Child 3 run ahead of us. She runs to a driveway then (somewhat) waits for our approval to go to the next one. We watched her little legs run as fast as she could, free like the wind. And we found ourselves reminiscing about when she came home (26 months old) and couldn't run at all. Well, she ran, but it was a very clumsy run. She just hadn't had a lot of practice. Now she is one spry kiddo!

When we came home, the kids started begging for dessert. By that time it was 8 or so which is a normal bedtime (or get ready for bedtime) time. But on Family Night, anything goes. So one child finished his cake up, another ate a really large cookie from school, the big kids had ice cream, and I had leftover frosting on graham crackers. Hmmmm, that may be why I am feeling so very miserable now. I should have stopped at say...one. I think I may have to walk a few extra miles tomorrow.

Finally, the kids got into bed. Mark went to Blockbuster and picked up a couple of movies for us. Very rare treat. We hardly ever rent (or watch) movies. We just watched Fireproof. I have been told by many friends to watch it but have been hesitant. I adored Kirk Cameron as a teen. ADORED. As in dreamt of him every night. It just seemed weird to me to watch him on the screen while I was sitting with my current love. :) But I got past it. The acting was a bit cheesy which I was expecting. But the message...well, it was a good "together" movie to watch.

I realize I am rambling and wandering a bit. I really need to get to bed. Tomorrow life gets hectic again with a baseball game, errands, yardwork, and science experiments. But for tonight...just for tonight...it was Family Night!

Nighty night!