Family Fun Night

Last night, we went to Canvas Night at Quiggley's Clayhouse.  It's a paint your own pottery kind of place, and Caroline absolutely loves going there.  I've taken her numerous times, and our house is full of her creations.  She also, really loves going to their Kid's Night Out programs every other month or so.  But last night, I decided we needed to do something as a family.  For the most part, I think we had fun.  Here are some things I took away from the experience:

* Jack just went along with the family because it got him out of the house.  I'm not complaining.  I'm so glad he came along, because, honestly I was worried he'd choose to stay at home and play on his Xbox.  I also learned that he doesn't follow direction all that great (but I kind of already knew this).  Needless to say, halfway through the night he was pestering (and I really mean pestering) us to go home.  He wasn't really interested in the whole thing, but I'm glad he went along.  He painted his greeting in German, which is something he's totally fascinated with.  Not sure if he'll want to do this again.

*Caroline really enjoyed the whole evening, and we will probably do this with her again.  She was very careful about where she placed her birds, and made darn sure we didn't look at her saying until it was on the canvas.    Hers is the blue one with the self affirming saying on it.  I'm so glad she picked that phrase (she came up with it on her own), because something I've noticed about the kids in her group at school is that they are NEGATIVE!  I saw some of the posts she had been receiving on her Instagram account, and let me just say that there are several girls out there who are just down right mean and nasty.  We had to go through her account and delete several of them (I think the correct term is "unfollow").  It gave her great satisfaction to see that she still had several people that follow her that are positive, and were good to keep around.  Last night's activity showed her one thing she is good at, and allowed her participate in it.  Now we just have to figure out where to put the painting.

*Kevin had a great time (I think).  He and I will definitely do it again.  But next time, I think that we will just go by ourselves and take some wine.  That would definitely be a good thing. :)  I also learned that he really has a great sense of humor (his is the blue one with the upside down bird on it).  The painting we were doing only had four birds on it, but he put five, one for each of his kids.  I have a feeling that the upside down bird is either Caroline or Allie (or both).  :)

* I'm a paint by numbers kind of gal.  I did a great job with the step by step instruction, but couldn't do it by myself.

The store is trying to get the class to go each week, and I hope it takes off.  I'll definitely do it again.  It was a lot of fun.  And, it was a great stress reliever.  We all had some really great laughs.