Double date night

We had such a fun night yesterday. I love doing things "on the fly"...which made yesterday so fun because its hard to plan things last minute with little kids. Earlier in the afternoon, our good friends Dennis and Selena asked Dave for some help cutting down a big tree that was in danger of falling on their house, so he went over there for a few hours to help. Dennis was so thankful for his help that he wanted to treat us to a night out (thank you again Hemmers!!). We made last minute plans by asking Alex W. and her friend Grace to babysit, got them to our house, and all 5 of our kids played together. Violet was soooo excited that her friends and favorite babysitter were ALL coming over to her house all at the same time. It was almost more than she could handle. She wasn't excited to see me when I got home, because that meant the night of fun came to and end. Our date night was relaxing - we got the babysitters and kids settled with a couple pizzas for supper, said our goodbyes (though the kids were all too excited and already playing together so intently they hardly noticed we left), packed our friends into the back row of our LaMarche-mobile and drove together to a new restaurant called Roux Orleans downtown Waterloo. Dennis recommended the crawfish binettes (which are deep fried, yum) for an appetizer. I got cajun-seasoned pork tenderloin with garlic mashed potatoes. Dave had catfish, Dennis got steak, and Selena got chicken parmesan. The meal was also served with cornbread muffins topped with a seasoned honey butter. The food was great, the conversation was great, and the time was relaxing. We topped off the evening sitting around some lattes at Starbucks. We were only gone for three hours from 6:30-9:30. The sitters did a great job, kids were all happy, and toys were picked up. Violet's friend Ivy said to her "Violet, I am going to miss you when I leave your house!" What a sweet girl. They didn't realize that after a short night of sleep they could spend more time together in Sunday School class the next morning. Calvin gave me a running hug when he saw me. Even though Violet wasn't all that happy to see me at first, both kids freaked out screaming "mommyyyyy!!!" and melting down when they saw me walk back out the door so I could drive the two babysitters back home. I was still home in time to kiss/hug them before bed. They didn't get to bed til close to 10 pm...which made for a less-than-pleasant morning. Calvin seems to weather less sleep better than Violet. He seemed cheerful most of the day. Violet had a pretty testy morning...so let's hope she catches up on sleep tonight and the rest of the week.