Anniversary Date Night

With so much going on during our actual anniversary weekend we decided to delay our anniversary date by a few days.  There is a Painting with a Twist venue right by the house (literally, right outside our neighborhood), so we imposed upon Papa Joe and Annie Joe "Boo" (Simmons) to come over Friday night and play with Nathan while we went and channeled our inner artists. This is a Pinot's Palette type place where you attend a painting class and enjoy bring-your-own snacks and beverages.  Most people bring wine. We, for obvious reasons, brought sparkling red grape juice (along with cheese, olives, crackers and strawberries). The theme painting of this particular painting class was "Zen Tree" - simple and pretty.

The Friday before this Aunt Misty came to watch Nathan while we went to a late night downtown dinner at Brennan's with the executive team on my main client. This was the first time Nathan had a non-family member putting him through the bedtime routine while we were gone.  According to Aunt Misty, he did really well (so I'm banking on her agreeing to babysit again in the future)!  [For those of you who are confused by the simultaneous use of "Aunt" and non-family, Misty is one of my very best friends and so goes by Aunt Misty to Nathan]. That was our practice run with a technically non-family babysitter.  Promising.

Joe and Annie Joe arrived just before 6:30 while we were all finishing up dinner. It was a good thing Nathan already had enough to eat, because he got so excited that Papa Joe was at the house that he literally started laughing and bouncing in his chair with excitement. Joe asked if Nathan would be okay when we left, I guess anticipating a my-parents-are-leaving breakdown, but I assured him that Nathan would be fine (internally crossing my fingers that Nathan wouldn't make me a liar). As it turned out I was right.  In fact, when Jimmy and I gave Nathan goodbye hugs and kisses he practically ignored us. It felt very much like, "yeah, yeah, bye guys, I'm showing Papa my play-doh."  He didn't even look up as we were walking out the door. This is the same treatment we get when Lolo or Grammy are keeping him, so we weren't completely heartbroken.

We made it to our class with enough time to get aprons and set out our snacks (very important to the pregnant lady). Jimmy even managed to snag me a more comfortable stool (wider and more stable). We had fun listening to the silly people around us and seeing each other's masterpiece take shape.  I think we both ended up really happy with our finished products, even though they look nothing alike.  Jimmy wants me to hang mine in Olivia's room since it has pink in the leaves/flowers but I haven't decided yet.

Close up of my finished tree.

Jimmy putting the finishing touches on his tree.  I think this is a record for him and gives me hope that my one-year anniversary painting may someday get done (aka "started").

All done!

Close up of Jimmy's finished tree. I like the twisted trunk and limbs he made.

We got home at 9:15 pm to a child that was WIDE AWAKE and literally bouncing around to keep himself that way.  Annie Joe claimed she didn't feed him anything with sugar, and because she is the wife of an elder of the church I believed her, but man was Nathan hard to get to sleep that night!  We told them it was okay to let him stay up, knowing it would be difficult for them to get him through his normal bedtime routine, but we sure paid for it over the course of the next 2 nights. That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Nathan clearly loved spending time with his Katy grandparents and we thoroughly enjoyed our date night.  Thank you, again, Papa Joe and Boo! We love you!