Family Date Night

  While most nights we stay home and eat in, the weekends are usually reserved for take-out, eating out or whatever you can figure out, which usually equals a bowl of cereal...

Last weekend we got adventurous and decided to take the kids somewhere a little fancier than the usual family friendly restaurants we rotate through (which means a place where we can corner Thatcher in a booth because he won't sit in a high chair, a place that offers crayons and coloring pages, a place that is loud and a major bonus is a place that has a video game area). 

So, we walked down to Opal, and lucky for us, Opal is sort of like a retirement home before 6 PM.   The people already seated in the restaurant thought our kids were adorable and kept telling us that they reminded them of their grand children. Score!!!

Thatcher chose to stand on his chair the ENTIRE dinner. I let it slide since it was better than running around the restaurant.

I wonder if the table next to us thought he was being as cute as the kids???

Now you see where Thatcher gets it from...

 

Not only did Thatcher stand the entire time, he ate with his hands and made a complete mess.  I let that slide too because I was enjoying my martini too much...

While the kids dined on pasta, we had some of our Opal favorites like the phyllo wrapped tiger prawns with coconut curry sauce and the smoked chicken pizza.

Neither kid would let Todd or I have a chance at the tiramisu or gelato.

 Thank you Thatcher for being so good!

Thank you Sammie for being so sweet!

And then, the restaurant began to get packed with the usual Opal crowd, and as you can see, it was time to go...

After dinner we took a walk down to La Arcada Plaza to check out the new restaurant Todd is doing work in (Cielito should be open soon).

And then one final stop before the walk home, a Shirley Temple at The Chase. 

I'd say this was MUCH better than a bowl of cereal ;)