I Wish Every Day Could End Like This

It was a sleepy, mopey, Sunday afternoon. No commitments, nowhere to go, nobody coming over. Then, Photoguy broke out the Uno cards and started playing with Soph and E-Man. By the time I joined in, he had those kids acting so silly, they couldn't stop giggling for a second. We just sat there and played round after round having so much fun.

This is another great thing about our kids getting older -- game night. I mean, sure, we've played Candyland (where you're always trying to stack the cards so the kids will win), and Chutes and Ladders (the game that never ends), and a modified version of Simpson's Clue (AiAi has scattered the game pieces throughout the house). But, tonight, we were playing a real game that was really fun, even for the grown-ups. And, the kids could win without us having to "let" them win (aside from the time I slipped three wild cards to E-Man just because it was so fun to see his reaction to having THREE BLACK CARDS!).

Man, we were having a great time. And, AiAi was sitting in his chair watching us with a big silly grin on his face, like he was thinking, "I'm so glad I'm in this family." I love that. He even fell asleep in his chair with the smile still plastered ear to ear.

In between rounds, I slipped into the kitchen and whipped up one of those Great Harvest Chocolate Chip Cookie mixes (by the way -- a favorite of mine), and we ate warm cookies and cold milk as the Uno games wound down. We wore those kids out with all the laughing -- and everyone was in bed by 8:30!!! That hasn't happened since way before school got out. In fact, the kids have been going to sleep more like somewhere between 10-11 p.m., an all around bad thing.

I'm not trying to brag, because this sort of perfect picture of a night almost never happens. But, it did tonight. And, I wanted to write it down so I never forget it.