Fun family evening

We had a fun family evening on Tuesday. Our local video store has $3 movies on Tuesdays so we decided that we would rent "Chicken Little" and eat takeaways for dinner while we watched it. So I got the DVD and picked the boys up from preschool just before 5pm, and Rob got Wendy's from the drive-through on his way home from work. We put a blanket on the lounge floor and had a "picnic" while the movie was on. We started watching at 5.15pm and it finished around 6.30pm, just enough time to get the kids ready for bed.

Can you believe that BOTH my boys sat and watched the whole movie?! I knew Ethan would, but I figured Tyler would lose interest. After all, it really is aimed at older kids. But he sat with me on the couch for most of the time, often with his head resting on my leg (VERY unusual behaviour for him, let me tell you!) and then sat with Rob for the last bit. I think he's actually coming down with some kind of cold or something, because he was unusually placid, and Melissa and Kristie said he hadn't been himself at preschool that day.

Anyway, it was really fun thing to do together. Since it was so successful, we might end up doing it on a regular basis, like once a month. It was such a change from the usual stress between 5-7pm … rushing home from work/preschool, keeping the kids away from the pantry, struggling to get a good home-cooked meal ready before 5.45pm, dealing with "food issues" at the dinner table, then the bathtime/storytime/bedtime routine. The usual. Most parents will know what I mean. But Tuesday evening was the most unstressful evening we've had as a family in a long time.
And the movie wasn't half-bad, either!