Project Family Date Night

Call it desperation, a New Year's Resolution, or crazy, but we've decided that it's something that must be done.  In some ways, we've been hermits for 19 months (yes, we fly, but mostly to the grandparents' homes).  Make that two years - I stopped going out much once I reached whale-ific proportions.  Don't get me wrong: I love being home, and for the most part, I love cooking (it's the cleaning up I hate).  In fact, we've also decided that the only way to see our friends again is to cook for them at home on Sunday afternoons while the boys sleep.  So it's not like we're socialites or anything.

But we've gotta get outta here.  The house is small, the weather bad (-6 as I type), the toys overwhelming, and the kitchen must close down once in  while!  Besides, we do need to socialize them - like, in a place that's not babyproofed.

So we did again. 

We're calling it Project Family Date Night.  You know, like a sequel to that time in our lives when we actually had "Date Night?" 

We try to find a family-friendly activity and restaurant and have fun together, which in itself is no small potatoes when you need to entertain two curious and wily toddlers!

Activity 1: Edinborough Park. It's an indoor playground up near the cities that comes highly recommended from other parents.   It was fun, but I think it will be much more successful when the boys are bigger and the crowds are thinner.  Here are a couple pics, then we'll move on to the REAL fun:

Restaurant:California Pizza Kitchen!  It's no secret that we love pizza, but this joint brings back fond memories for us because we've eaten at several of its locations all over the world!  San Fransisco and Singapore spring to mind this morning.

And miracle of miracles!  I'm not sure what happened, but the fellas were ANGELS!  As in, the box of crayons fascinated them for 15 entire minutes! 

Tic tac toe, anyone?

Put 'em in, take 'em out, repeat 100 times.

Then...they ate their entire meal!  Without throwing it on the floor!  Without throwing the not-plastic plates on the floor!  Woo hoo!  You cannot imagine how wonderful this was.

Hubs and I actually got to eat our meals, much more peacefully than our previous date night with the guys.  Oh, how I love thee, chicken lettuce wraps!

As we cleaned up the fellas (a just a few errant noodles), we patted ourselves on the backs for a successful meal and told them, "You give us hope for the future, fellas," when a family entered the restaurant with a set of 5-ish year-old twin boys.

"Look!  Twins!  Just like you were!" the mom cried.  "Mom and Dad are sure brave!"  We smiled up at them, said hello, and they kept going.

"Hope for the future," Hubs said.  "Did you notice there was a third?" he asked, since the dad was carrying a little toddler.

"I noticed," I said. 

I'm hopeful, but not that hopeful.  Not yet, anyway.  I need a few more successful Project Family Date Nights.  No... a LOT more.