Tag Archives: night

Acoustic Syndicate

On one our first dates (ten years ago), Tom and I went to see the band Acoustic Syndicate on New Year’s Eve at the Visulite.  Acoustic Syndicate is a bluegrass-like jam band that is from NC and very talented.  We have seen them a few times since that first date, but not many.  This is due to the fact that we are old and have kids and going to see a band at 9:00pm is not an option for us anymore.  Thankfully, Acoustic Syndicate played an “early show” this past Tuesday night at 7:30.   Tom’s dad was in town so we even had a free babysitter. :)  As excited as we were for the date, we almost didn’t even make it to the early show.  Tom came home and said that he was exhausted.  I then told him that I needed to lay down for fifteen minutes before we went out because I too was exhausted.  My nap lasted ten minutes before Miller and the other kids climbed into bed with me.  I seriously didn’t think we would end up going to the show.  I tried to change our plans to something low key, but Tom insisted that we should go and that we would have a good time.  I am so grateful that he made us get up, motivate and go do something fun and original.  We had a great time!

As soon as we sat down a friendly girl named Ashley struck up a conversation with us.  Then we met her boyfriend who was working with Goose Island beer that was sponsoring the evening.  These two kind people gave us free drink tickets, two t-shirts and two pint glasses!  Not only did we see a band we love and enjoy our time together, but Tom and I also drank for free and got some goodies to boot.

Dates night are hard to come by, but when they do occur I am so thankful that I am married to a guy who likes to have fun and encourages me to have fun with him.

 

 

Family Movie Night

Every weekend we have “movie night”.  Movie night consists of a movie, popcorn and sometimes a pizza.  I typically don’t get too excited about movie night because it is usually a kid movie that I have seen a couple of times already or it just isn’t a very good movie.  Some movies we have seen lately are Rango, Superman 2, and Nut Job.  Last month I introduced the kids to Disney’s “Escape to Witch Mountain”.  I remember loving this movie as a child.  It is about two kids that are really aliens and they are trying to get home.  The movie definitely doesn’t have the special effects of today’s movies, but the kids loved it.  They watched it over and over again.

Tonight we watched our family’s favorite TV show – Survivor!  The kids love to watch the show because of the games and challenges.  Tom and I have been watching Survivor together for years now.  It is nice to be able to watch a TV show together as a family and have everyone enjoy it (and by “everyone”, I mean me).   We all sat together on the couch, ate popcorn, and watched the show.  The kids watched the entire thing, even Miller.  I look forward to spending this time with the kids each week.  Faith sat in my lap while Wilson snuggled in next to me.  It was fun to be together, sharing the same interest, and talking about the show as it was going on.  I was even able to snap a family selfie….

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Triple Date

 

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Tom and I were able to go out on a triple date on Saturday night.  We went out with Bobby and Sidney Youngs and my brother Doug. (Jacqueline couldn’t make it).  We went to Cru Wine Bar.  It is a small wine bar in the Ballentyne area of town.  It had live music, which was the perfect volume, and a very warm atmosphere.  Tom met the bartender at Starbucks that week.  She was a diver on the National Dive Team in the US.  They struck up a conversation and she told us to come in one night…..so we did.  We ordered a few bottles of wine and she came around every so often with a sample of red wine for all of us to try.  Luckily, we are all good friends because we passed around the same glass and all took a sip.  Our favorite was the Burley Cabernet.  It was delicious and cost about $90 a bottle.  That was probably a once in a lifetime taste right there.  :)

It feels so refreshing and rejuvenating to go out with friends and have a good time.  It isn’t often that we all get together and go somewhere without the kids.  It was a late night and I definitely felt the effects the next day, but it was totally worth it.

Mouse Trap

For Christmas Wilson was given the game Mouse Trap. He has been asking to play it, but quite frankly, we didn’t know how and it looked rather complicated. As a child of the eighties, I had been exposed to the game numerous times but I had never actually played the game as it was intended to be played. We always just set it up, let the ball run the course a few times and then put it away. I am amazed that they still make the game at all. Tonight we actually played the game and it was really fun!

The object of the game is to set up the pieces of the game as you move along the board. The kids enjoyed setting it up on their various turns. After the pieces have all been set up, it is a free for all. Everyone except the winner gets caught in the trap. It was actually quite exciting. We were all cheering for a certain number on the dice and laughing when someone got caught in the mouse trap. Faith won and Wilson was an amazingly good loser. He just had fun playing.

We haven’t had a game night like that together….ever. Maybe we are entering a new phase of life. Even Miller sat there with us at the table and rolled the dice when it was his turn. However, He did think that the cheese playing pieces were real and tried to eat them. I had to get him some real cheese instead. The funniest part was when wilson announced mid game ,”I farted”. We all laughed and then Told him that he “cut the cheese”. The kids thought that was hilarious. They were surprisingly able to muster up lots of opportunities to use the phrase appropriately. Lol.

It turns out that after all of these years, Mouse Trap is actually a fun game. I am sure that we will be playing it again soon. It was big hit tonight.

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