Date Night With a Younger Man

Things have been a little crazy around here.  Busy, chaos, and although lots of time together, not lots of time "connecting".

One thing that is hard for me being a mom of 3 under 5 is getting one to one time with the kids that is not time out related.  It seems like it is especially hard with Luke because he is already getting one to one time with his sports and activities.

But we all felt like we needed some connecting time.  So our strategy?  Mike and I decided to take dates.  Mike and Dottie on one date and Luke and I on our own date.  Charlie was parked with a babysitter because, well, to be honest, he is 16 months old and is hard to take places that the big kids want to go.  We don't like to leave him out, AT ALL but the older kids seemed to need this.

So away we went.

Luke chose Cranky Pats for dinner.  mmmmm.  super thin crust pizza.

Luke is not a big talker, but he is a LOUD talker.  He was pretty hilarious making lot of commentary on the pizza, the ovens, the baseball game on tv.  We decided that Pat was Cranky because he had to slice so many mushrooms.  He Laughed.  He kept grabbing my hand or high giving me.  He was HAPPY to have his picture taken.  

it. was. 

awesome.

I had picked the activity.  Mini golf.  Something that would be hard with Charlie and Dottie along so it really felt like a big kid night.  Luke had a blast and was pretty good too!  

Just about every other hole he would come and hug me or high five and say, "Im having a bwast, momma".  It almost broke my heart but I refused to be maudlin about it because we were having fun and talking and just relaxing.  He was showing off and being goofy and enjoying being the only kid.  I was enjoying only having one kid with me!  there was no chaos or chasing or generalized anxiety about what was about to go wrong next, just hanging out.  

and he kept agreeing to take pictures with me.  ha.  

The golf place was very close to our favorite Green Bay stomping grounds, Bay Beach.  Luke had never been there at night before when they light up the rides.  We decided that our most excellent date night should include the ferris wheel.  

When the ride was over, we had some extra tickets and we closed out the night with the bumper cars.  

I am feeling so refreshed.  The anxiety has not disappeared and neither have the reasons for said anxiety. but you know what?  our kids are awesome.  They ARE good and well behaved and interesting.  But is hard being a trio sometimes.  Even when you love the other members of your tribe they can drive you nuts.  

Mike and Dottie also had a blast - they ALSO went for pizza (and ordered the same kind we did - pepperoni and green olive) and then went and hung out at the GB Botanical garden.  We laughed so hard that we had "matching" dinners on our date night.  We also had a TON of pizza left so we had pizza for breakfast and Charlie could join in on the fun too.  

We need to do it again because, well, mostly because it felt great .  summer still has some magic even if you don't see the fireflies.