To extend dinner time...

With the kids getting older and everyone going in different directions every day, I really treasure the time we can sit together and eat dinner.  Last week - midweek - I made a pot roast and mashed potatoes with oven roasted veggies (thanks Trader Joe) and thought we would eat and sit and talk and laugh and be awesome.  NOPE.  I barely sat down and Matt was gone, his plate clean.  Alex had come, eaten, gone and come back.  Sophie was there, but curious about where the potatoes had come from and if they were real (she is afraid of what I am 'slipping in' to her food) so she was ready to leave the table before she even took a bite.  Steve was still at work and I had no idea when he'd be home.  LAME-O.  So I called everyone back to the table and began to monologue about how "when I was a kid, we didn't leave the table until we were excused by my parents.  We didn't want to leave either!  Dinner lasted about 30 to 45 minutes and we just ate and sat and talked and laughed and were awesome!!"  I decided to have everyone help clean up dinner together (it wasn't a popular idea), climb in the car and drive to Bella Terra for yogurt.  On the way there, I had my brother on speaker phone to tell the kids about how dinner was growing up at the Smith house (he said the same thing as me!).  Then I called Kelly and asked her to tell the kids about her experience at the table growing up.  She had my back...she said the same things as I did!  I am excited about that cuz it means my memory isn't failing as much as I thought it was.  

 My kids got an earful, but I think they got the idea of what makes family dinner so great.  We went to Pinkberry and ate our fill of "swirly goodness."  (that deserved a different color and larger font).

Matt was in his p.j.'s and I don't know if we realized it until I took this picture.  When we finished our yogurt, we went to Barnes and Noble to look at magazines.

Alex was drawn to the current events section.

This was the only thing that caught Matt's eye enough for him to pick it up and read.  Then he was off to the music section.

Sophie is just SO into dogs right now - she read every dog magazine in the place.

It ended up being a pretty fun night.  At least I got a little more time with them!