Family Date Night

As a little pre-Valentine's celebratin', we decided to do a big family date night.  The girls all went with Daddy, and the boys all went with Mommy.  Kind of a split up family night, but I think that's good sometimes.

Earlier in the day we took Erika to Build-a-bear to make her first stuffed animal.  Most of our kids got one when they were born or shortly after, but not Erika and she was the only one who hadn't been there.  We thought this would be fun for her since the plans for the evening weren't really geared for her.  I had a few coupons, and we had racked up a few gift cards, so the cute, pink Kitty she picked out ended up costing only $7!  Pretty cool.  She was so cute there!!  I loved watching her face as she walked around picking things out.  It was difficult for her to pick out her animal. She wanted them all :).  She talked to the girl that helped her stuff it, and was SO cute about it all.  She loved "bathing" her kitty :).  She picked out some cute clothes and I'm still wondering why Build-a-Bear keeps the cheapest clothing down at kid level.  My kids have never picked anything up high, so we end up saving a little money :).  Nice for me, dumb for them.  She picked out a little cell phone for her kitty and then named her "Pinky" with some help from Mom.  She wasn't really sure what it meant to pick out a name.  She LOVED the box and insisted on carrying the box all the way back to the car.  Totally toughed it out the whole way!  The box was almost as tall as her, so she had to hang her tongue on the last half of the way :).  She had the cutest face on the whole time.  It's so fun to spoil kids sometimes.  She loved the attention.

So anyway, that night, Nate took the girls on a "shopping spree" to pick out a few outfits each.  I've enlisted Charity to give the report on their half of the night.... here it is in her words:
We went to Kohl's and we got some REALLY cute outfits. I got a blue shirt,  a blue dress, two new pairs of jeans and some new tennis shoes!!!  Kelly got a couple really cute shirts and she actually got jeans (she hates jeans by the way)!!!!!!!! She also got some new tennis shoes. After we went shopping we went to Applebee's for dinner. It was lots of fun!!!

The boys and I had so much fun!!!  We stopped at the mall to pick up a gift for Nate, and then had dinner in the Food Court at Hot Dog on a Stick.  It was so fun to hang out with just my boys!  They're all growing up so much!  Bradley talked all the way there and kept saying, "Do I talk too much?", "I'm talking too much, huh?", "I like to talk a lot."  It was so cute!  I loved it.  So then we got to Nickelcade.  I loved their excitement when we got in the place.  They had never been there before but any small arcade places that they have been were more than thrilling, so I figured a place that big could only be better :).  They couldn't believe how many nickels they got!  Cute little Noah took a long time to catch on to the whole earning tickets part, so he spent most of the first hour riding all the little toys.  It makes me laugh just thinking about him sitting on the horse, moving back and forth and saying, "This is boring now, when is it going to be over?..... Can you get me off?"  And then asking to sit on the next one... a boat :).  They all did the same motion and yet he rode them all at least once, leaving the previous one going as he got on the next.  Made me smile.  He also tried every single driving game as well.  I had to push on the gas pedal for him, but he loved it!  Luke and Bradley went around frantically looking for the machine that put out the most tickets :).  They were fun.  Noah and I got to play air hockey too and I couldn't believe how good he was at it!  He's not all that well-known for his hand-eye coordination, so I was really impressed!  He would hit the puck back pretty quickly and blocked his goal really well!  I couldn't believe it!  At one point, after accidentally knocking the puck in his own goal a few times, he announced that we were going to start trying to get it in our OWN goal from now on :).  Makes me laugh.  He's such a funny little guy.  Altogether the boys and I all got 615 tickets!  We decided to divide them up between the 3 of them and they all picked out a wimpy little prize that they loved :).  It was so much fun!  I couldn't believe how well-behaved they were, they all stayed nearby me the whole time, and even though there were kids climbing all over the machines and cheating, they didn't even try any of that.  I was proud of them.  As we were getting into the car, they said, "We need to bring the girls here! They would love this!"  That made me happy to hear that they actually do love being with the whole family.  And that they had enough fun, they wanted to share it with the others.  

It turned out to be a really fun night for everyone.  They all went to bed SO quickly and quietly, with little struggle ;).  I like it when they wear themselves out like that.  Good times.  Unfortunately.... no pictures.