A Playground and Taco Bell...A Near Perfect Friday Night

Friday nights are always full of possibilities. So many possibilities, in fact, that we sometimes default to doing absolutely nothing. Not so last night. Kristin decided to take Grandaddy and Sam to Chili's for some barbecued ribs and one of her favorite desserts – molten lava cake. For the rest of us, Bryan Park seemed like a wise choice. 

I had just finished watching Pool Hall Junkies, a movie that my friend Rocky loaned me, the night before, and I wanted to drop it off first. His place is a little closer to the Templeton school playground than Bryan Park, and we hadn't played at the school before, so I decided to give it a shot. 

It's really exciting to be on the scene when one of the kids steps way out of their comfort zone. In this case, it was Chase on the monkey rings (like monkey bars, but with chains and handles instead of static bars). 

At first, he'd climb onto the platform, and I'd help him lean forward far enough to grab the first set of rings. Then, he'd hang there by himself for a second or two before asking me for help getting down. We did that a few times and then I suggested that he let go and drop 2 to 3 feet to the ground on his own. After that, he did that whole process on his own a few more times. Then, finally, with me off to the side talking to Rocky, I saw him swing off the platform while holding the first set of rings before reaching out to grab the second set of rings. He hung on the second set for a few seconds before dropping to the ground.

I'm wondering how much Sam's recent progress on the monkey rings attached to our wooden playset at home influenced him. She actually made it all the way across on her own this week...

6 rings!!

We decided to the head to the library to grab some movies next. Unfortunately, the Bloomington library closes at 6p.m. on Friday. We drove around a bit showing Rocky the sites because he's new to town. I started feeling hungry and suggested Taco Bell. The highlight of the taco feast? There were three: (1) Chase eating 3 whole tacos and half an order of cinnamon twists by himself, (2) me getting 3 free tacos because Rocky didn't order sour creme on his and (3) seeing Ava and Chase dancing around to the 50's music in between bites of taco.

What a great Friday night (and I didn't even get into whipping Rocky on my Playstation 3).