For our family, many weekends are kid-focused. Those weekends usually involve kid parties, trips to the park, play dates, etc. Then, there are often parent-centered weekends, where the kids just get dragged around from one parent related activity to another, usually spending a large amount of time running errands. But occasionally, there’s a weekend that strikes the perfect balance between a kid-focused and a parent-focused weekend.
Friday night, the five of us went to a movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. The first time all five of us have been to a theater together. Clearly we’re not a big “lets go to the movies” type of family. My wife and I have been together over a decade and I can count on one hand the number of movies we’ve seen in a theater. All of that to say, it was a unique special event for all of us (Do anyone else’s kids eat the entire tub of popcorn before the previews are even over?). Later, we went out for pizza and talked about our favorite parts of the movie. During the discussion my daughter pointed out, “Certainly the movie was a work of fiction.” Funny stuff.
Saturday was a double kid birthday party day. I took my son to a fifth birthday for one of his friends. It was pretty hilarious, be on the lookout for a separate blog post specifically about that party, soon. After that, we headed to see some relatives and go to another birthday party. It was great watching kids taking turns beating a fire truck piñata to its death, then scrambling like vultures for all the candy on the ground.
Sunday, we were given two tickets to the Colts vs. Rams game, so we hired a babysitter and my wife and I went out to lunch, then the game for an afternoon date. Although, next time we go to an NFL game we will be sure to read the section about items you are and are not allowed to bring into an NFL stadium. We did not know until we arrived at the stadium that my wife’s purse would not be allowed in. Instead of walk back to the car, we did the next most logical thing, we shoved it under a dumpster at the bus station and retrieved it after the game. Fun stuff.
The weekend ended with our family going over to a friends’ house for dinner.
Overall, it was a great weekend, that had the perfect balance of family, kid time, and grown up time.
Next time though, no dumpsters.
