Last night, Jay and I(plus Kate) took the three older boys out for their belated birthday gift. All their birthdays are in February, but because of Mike and Jon's basketball schedules we had to put it off for a few extra weeks.
Yesterday afternoon my Dad was nice enough to babysit the younger kids and we took the boys to the Providence Place Mall. We had a really great meal at the Cheesecake Factory. Then we walked around the mall for a little while. We ended the night at Dave and Busters. The boys had a great time(Jay included!). They spent time challenging each other at the basketball shoot challenges.(What a surprise!) Andrew and Mike had a good time beating Jay's score a couple of times. I think their other favorites were the Fruit Ninja and Mario Cart games. We also competed as a family on the horse racing game...that was fun! Jay, Mike, and I all won a game. Poor Jon came in second every time.
It was nice to spend time with the older boys like that and focus our attention on them. The conversation was light...mostly about sports...but everyone got along really well. It's so interesting seeing the people they are becoming. It was also so nice to see them getting along so well and seeking each other out at Dave and Busters to play games together. That made me feel good. Some of their personalities are so different that there have been times in the past when I wondered if they would even speak to each other when they are adults, nevermind be close friends. Nights like yesterday give me hope.
It was such an emotionally satisfying night. I loved spending time with my sons and husband. I loved seeing them have so much fun and show such excitement. And, of course, the cheesecake was pretty great too!
