Burgers and Fries with Daddy

A new restaurant showed up in our area of town a few months ago, and last Friday became a Daddy/son/daughter date night. Mommy needed a bit of a break after a long week, and the kids will never turn down the opportunity to drink soda (Caleb below) and to eat ketchup (Ella below :). I know, the ketchup thing is probably pretty nasty, but Mommy wasn't there (hahaha) and I couldn't stop laughing. Sally just informed me that ketchup is probably more healthy than soda anyways. Either way, I wasn't stopping anybody. :D

So, this restaurant is ingenius.  The layout inside is just a bunch of folding tables with folding chairs in a huge hall. There is a huge outside patio that is fenced in along with a HUGE astroturf field for the kids to play in. Everyone brings balls and toys and just runs around with the kids. The kids are hilarious. They chase each other, run around in packs, roll down the mini slope, climb the pitiful looking trees...and they LOVE IT. It's awesome. The parents can sit on the patio and see the entire field from their dinner table. I opted to chase these two around the whole time, and we had a blast. Ella loved our smiley face volleyball we brought and at 20 months has quite the ability to throw and kick a ball. Caleb just chased people, tackled his sister, tackled me, and dropped his pants over and over again. Thankfully it was an accident, but the poor kid needed a belt and I forgot to throw one on him. Oops! At one point I heard him say, "Dad!" and I turned to see him standing and pointing down at his ankles where his shorts were all bunched up. I'm just glad he's too young to be embarrassed yet.

The greatest moment was the melt down at the end when I tried to leave the restaurant without refilling the kids sodas. :) Wow, big no-no. Caleb dropped to the floor crying and Ella was already trying to figure out a way to get back out to that field. I admit, I resorted to bribery. It worked swimmingly, and we made it back home and got to bed before Mommy returned from her girls-night-out. It was a much needed break on both our parts. I'm gone so much at work that it's nice to come home and have all the kids' attention on me for awhile. Sally works hard all day trying to keep these two busy and out of trouble, and she needed a little down time. This will be a tradition we'll be keeping up for years to come, I'm sure.