Marble Jar Party

All the kids before we loaded up the van to go pick up Shane from work.  We went from there to Posados for dinner.  As you may notice, we eat the ice cream while we wait to order!  Yum.... chips, salsa and ice cream...all before the meal arrives.  Good thing we don't do this often! 

After our dinner we drove about 40 minutes away to a theater that was showing Cars 2.

I think the kids all liked Cars 2.  Me?  Well, I can't say that I want to see it again anytime soon, but I loved that we all got to have an evening out to celebrate together.  Most of the marbles that they "earn" for their marble jar party are for all the As that they get on their report cards.  For the most part, I forget about the marble jars except for when they bring home tests and report cards.  Occasionally, I remember to have them put marbles in the jar for being kind and helpful or if a child does something positive that was a "stretch" for them. (Hopefully those of you who are reading this know about the Marble Jar concept.)

We had considered leaving Ellie at home with a babysitter so that the evening would be easier on me and Shane but both of us felt bad leaving her out.  She ended up doing really well at the restaurant and she did pretty well at the movie too.  She did get a bit antsy and shuffled between seats a few times, but she wasn't noisy. At one point though Lucy got loud because her foot got stuck in her seat and she panicked because she couldn't get it out.  Poor girl.  The teenagers behind us got worried for her, but didn't seem to get upset by the noise.  (I was a bit upset with *them* afterwards for making out right behind my kids....and had to refrain from going over to them and separating the two! My kids were totally oblivious to what was going on though so that was good!)

On the way home I think we were all pretty sleepy.  I nearly fell asleep sitting up and Shane very kindly reminded me that I could put the seat back into a reclining position to be more comfortable. :)