Friday Night, Fun Night

Friday nights are becoming one of the best nights of the week. Mondays through Thursdays the girls and I do the usual routine of adventuring to the park or the grocery store but nowhere that's just plain fun since Dave's working late all week and he doesn't want to miss the fun places. Plus it's really hard to take the girls to places where they have the option of running in two different directions. There ends up being a lot of chaos and we usually leave a lot sooner than if I would have had Dave with me. To combat the monotony of the week, I've decided every Friday night we are going to go somewhere fun where the girls can go hog wild and run a muck.

Yesterday I picked The Jungle for our evening out. What a great choice. We walked through the front door and Olivia was in heaven. Her eyes were huge. At first she was reserved about playing in the ball pit with the big kids so we went to the toddler section. OMG did she have a great time. Slides, slides, slides everywhere to climb. Then Dave arrived and they girls were giddy. Balls were flying all over the pit and the girls ran their little bums off. We chased them and tickled them when they were caught.

Ava figured out how to climb the slippery stairs which then she used as a slide and slid down. Dave and I were amazed she kept doing it. I would have thought it had to be really uncomfortable going down a bumpy slide but it worked for Ava. She must have gone up and down that thing a 100 times. I am not kidding. She loved loved loved it.

We decided to take a break and order some dinner. Olivia demanded pizza and Ava got a corn dog. Ava waved it around in the air like it was her sword. I thought for sure it was going to hit the ground and become trash but her little hands held on tight. They both ate their oranges and drank their water while we snarfed down our pizzas and we were off to play again.

This time we started with the big covered slide. Olivia was apprehensive about going down it at first but Dave got in and went behind her and she flew down the slide. I'd say it wasn't her best slide experience but she liked it. What she really like was the arcade. She walked by every machine touching all the buttons. She sat on all the motorcycles and jumped on the dancing game pads. Meanwhile Ava was running laps up and down the ramp that goes between the caged area where the kids are climbing and sliding and the game area. She would start at the the top and run all the way down and turn around and run all the way back up. She probably ran a mile easily in the hour she spent on the ramp. We were there for about 4 hours so the girls got A LOT of exercise and so did we but as all good things it must come to an end and we left.

Dave had his car since he had come from work. The girls and I piled in ours and we decided we would follow Dave home. Olivia was in the backseat saying, "catchem our daddy, turn the wheel mommy, turn the wheel." It was so funny and cute. I would have loved for Dave to be able to hear her but my cell phone had died so that wasn't possible. Ava went to sleep as soon as her car seat was buckled. She has this uncanny ability to just shut off.

My backseat driver Olivia would shout out, "red light mommy or green means go" at every light. She narrated the traffic for me letting me know that the cars were turning or that the lights were bright. Usually she points out horses and cows so this was different and fun. We got home, took baths and went to bed. I asked Olivia if she had fun. Olivia said, "yes fun mommy, I sleep good."

Friday nights are becoming our family fun night. We get to regroup from being separated all week and unleash all of the stored up energy. I really appreciate Dave being there and getting to share in the joy that our kids experience. He's a wonderful father, a great husband, and the final piece to our weekly puzzle.