Perfect Night

Thursday night of last week was one of those perfect nights. Have you ever had one of those? The kind that starts at 6:30 in the evening, everyone is in "stay home clothes", you're contemplating what to eat for dinner that doesn't require actual cooking, and then a spur of the moment plan forms, and the night turns into perfection?

I needed to get a baby gift. And of course I didn't want to do the practical thing, and shop from the gift registry. I wanted to impart a bit of my hard-earned baby knowledge upon a new mommy in the form of a knit blankie from Gymboree. A perfect knit blankie, lightweight and stretchy enough to tightly swaddle a newborn, and slightly bigger than other knit blankies to tightly swaddle an 18 month old who will only nap during the day when swaddled and rocked by his mommy who is watching Law and Order re-runs while 8-months pregnant with his baby brother.

Not that any of my children were like that. Nope. We had each and every one of them sleep trained by the time they were 10 weeks old.

These blankets are also perfect for little boys, who like to sleep with the same blankie every night, blankets that just get softer when they're washed. Blankets that can only be found at Gymboree, which, in my neck of the woods, means a trip to the mall.

So at 6:30 Thursday evening, a plan was formed. We would all go to the mall, and Brandon would let the kids play at the indoor playground while I blankie-shopped, then dinner would be eaten at the food court. After the food court, we would venture over to the new splash pad Brandon and I had stumbled across on our last date night.

The only imperfect part of the evening was that Gymboree was sadly out of perfect blankies, they only had one girly looking one with red cherries all over it, which would not have been fully appreciated by baby Hudson. The children played. The mommy went to Bath and Body Works. Aidan had his perfect Sonic dinner of toast, tator tots, and a cherry limeade. Dane ate a slice of pizza bigger than his head. And Harper scavenged a little bit of everything.

It was a little darker than we had planned when we arrived at the splash pad at about 8:30. I sucked it up and left the neurotic-bedtime Mommy at home, and embraced the beautiful summer night with my favorite people. And they embraced it too.
And this girl loved her some splash pad:
After looking at these pictures, I went out and got Harper a swimsuit that's not quite so "flesh colored".

We found this great little place where music played along with the lights and the water fountains, and Harper was in heaven.


When the kids were done playing, a full hour after their bedtime after a long, busy day, we wrapped up in towels and headed across the street for some watermelon-flavored frozen yogurt.

These boys were so. tired.
And please ignore my little girl's hairline. We're still waiting on some of her hair to grow.
Anyone else have any "perfect night" activity ideas?