Date night

It seemed that the Littles needed some one on one time with Mom and Dad.  I figured a date night was in order, so suggested that one of us have dinner with one, then we would swap and have dessert with the other, in order to pay for only one outing.  When Jeffry returned from work this afternoon, he said that even our CRV with all wheel drive was slipping on the roads, so we needed to take a rain check, or go somewhere nearby.

Margaret was questioned on her dinner preference first; "Margaret, what would you like for dinner?"
"Orange."
"You just had an orange.  What would you like for a meal?"
"Apple!"
Finally, she decided on pizza, and I went to question Jack.
"Spaghetti and meatballs.  But no sauce."

I went downstairs and announced to Jeffry; "The good news is that they can both get what they want at one restaurant which is nearby.  The bad news is that it's Olive Garden." (We ate there a lot when my parents first returned from Africa.)So, off we went.

The host greeted us with; "Table for four?"
"We're all eating, but we're going to split up, so two tables of two."
"Next to one another?"
"Preferably not, it's date night."

I'm sure they were a bit confused, but very happy to accommodate us.  I was seated with Margaret who bounced on her seat, crawled under the table and ate the chicken from my soup with her fingers. Jeffry and Jack's server was impressed with our plan and searched the restaurant for Margaret and I so she'd know where to deliver Jack when we were done with our entrees.  At least one staff who was not directly involved with us caught on to the unusual family and wondered if we were "speed parenting".  Shortly after Jack was walked over to me and Margaret was escorted to Jeffry, both kids needed to use the bathroom, one right after the other.

Overall, it was a lot of fun.  Probably more because we felt like we'd gotten parenting right tonight, and it was fun throwing the staff at Olive Garden for a loop.

Now to give our lovely young lady an evening out ......