Sunday dinner

Dinner tonight was .... aaahhhh, should we say eventful???

We decided to take the kids to our favorite Mexican restaurant for some of the yummiest chips and salsa on the planet -- literally, it just doesn't get any better than this place! It's the perfect place for kids -- immediate chips and salsa, not overly quiet, great service, and really quick. Oh yea... the food is incredible too!

What should have been a nice family dinner left one child (Caleb) almost removed from the dinner table, another one (Katherine) in tears, and the last one (Andrew) screaming in a high pitched squeal that I was certain would crack the glasses on the table. Matt and I could do nothing but laugh at each other!

So.... here's how it went down.....

Caleb was pill for some reason. That's right. TOTAL. PILL. First he broke his straw trying to shove the entire thing into the styrofoam cup. We asked for new straw and thought we had the situation resolved. Then he decides that the table would be a perfect drum and starts banging his silverware as loudly as possible. UUUUGH. At this point, Andrew starts squealing as loudly as possible. He opens his little mouth and starts yelling. Not crying. Not fussing. Not wanting to be held. Just screaming. His face was red. He had drool flying all over the table. He was quite the sight. I dropped his plug on the table and for some reason (we all know he couldn't have been thinking clearly) Matt dips this pacifier into his glass of orange soda and shoves it into Andrew's mouth. Evidently he was trying to clean it off... Oh man... did it work. Andrew sucked on that thing like it was pure heaven! A few minutes later, Caleb got bored again, and starts drawing on his styrofoam cup with the fork. UUUUUUUMMMM... hello.... he's about to poke a hole in the cup and spill soda all over the table. Great... Oh, and yea.... our food hasn't even arrived at this point.

All of a sudden, I look at Katherine and say to her, "I know exactly what you're thinking and totally agree, but leave it alone. We can't discuss it here". Matt's at loss, and asks for explanation. I tell her not to say anything and we'd tell dad when we got to the car. But, oh no.... Katherine can't let anything just be... Nope. Not my little princess. She has to point across the restaurant and say in a rather LOUD voice, "Look at that lady over there -- the one with fuzzy springing headband. SHE LOOKS RIDICULOUS". I just wanted to crawl under the table. Thankfully she didn't hear Katherine's comment, but man... she did look absolutely insane. Remember those headbands from back in the 80's that had glittery balls attached to springs that would bounce all over the place when you moved your head?? Well she had on one of those numbers along with a sun visor. Oh, and she was older than I was. I had to bite my tongue to stop laughing!

So, dinner comes and Caleb refuses to eat. Evidently his beans are too hot and he has to wait for them to cool down. Whatever. At this point, whether or not he eats his beans is of supreme indifference to me. I really don't care.....

Katherine downs her food and while she's waiting for us to finish, she grabs onto the the back of the booth and starts using it as a piece of gymnastics equipment. She is sitting normally, and reaches her hands up as high as she can and sits in a pike position with her butt off the seat. Don't ask. There are very few moments in life that aren't consumed with gymnastics in one way or another. In any event, the decorative wooden spindles attached to the top of the booth can't hold her weight *GASP* and break apart. That's right, she totally broke the top part of the booth. She's horrified, in tears, and holding two small wooden bars.

Oh, I'm ready to get home. Talk about a disaster. I could have just died.

So home we went -- to the comfort of our home, turned the sprinklers on, and invited two of our 'hood friends over to hang by the fire pit. So ... 8 kids, 6 parents, and a water fight later, we're all happy again and everything is right with the world! LOL.