Cook Family: An Evening Out and Outdoor Fun!

Yesterday, Matt and I and our neighbors were supposed to drop all of our kids off at our neighbor's baby sitter's house so that we adults could have a trip to the bowling alley. The plans didn't work out, however. My neighbor called yesterday morning and said that her little girl was sick, so we had to take a rain check on bowling. It didn't bother me at all to reschedule, but when I told the kids that they weren't going to get to go the baby sitter's house and play, they were devastated. The kids had never even met the babysitter other than once last year when she was at our neighbor's house helping her with a yard sale. So after talking to Matt, I decided to call my neighbor and see if her babysitter would still watch our kids so Matt and I could have an evening out together. Sure enough, the babysitter (Marcia) was up for it.

We dropped the kids off around 6 o'clock. Nolan and Natalie were so excited when they saw all the toys she had. They had no problems at all with Matt and me leaving. Nathan was fine until later when he couldn't figure out why Mommy and Daddy were no longer there. Marcia said he had a little meltdown, but after she gave him some pretzels, he was fine. Nicholas, on the other hand, started crying immediately. Marcia was rocking him, and trying to get him to take his bottle, but he just wasn't having it. I had brought one of his toys from home, and that got him to calm down a little. When we left, he was still crying a bit. Marcia told us that he was very cranky and cried hysterically when he looked at her (poor Marcia). He finally took a 15 minute power nap, and then when he woke up, she said he was giggling and smiling and finally enjoying himself.

Matt and I didn't do much. We went to Olive Garden to eat and then to Target to shop a little. We were able to pick up the kids at about 8:30. I thought it worked out pretty well, and hopefully we'll be able to do this more often. Marcia even offered to watch the kids at our house sometime if we ever planned a late evening out. I think having an occasional baby sitter will really be a wonderful thing...especially since the kids had a blast and are already asking when they can go back to her house!

Here are some picks of the kids playing outside today.