Last night was Tuesday night park night!

This is a ritual that we started last summer, and it all started with the fact that McDonald’s has $1.99 Happy Meals on Tuesday nights, so we would grab dinner and head to a special park that not many people know about.

So of course we started that back up again as soon as the weather got warm enough. It was something that the kids have been asking about since the beginning of March! And we thought we were cursed for a while…the first time we tried to go but Kylie was way too sick to be outside when it was still a little chilly, and then the next time it started raining shortly after we got there.

But last night was good! The only problem we have run into is that both Kylie and Josh eat more than a Happy Meal, and I prefer Wendy’s to McDonald’s since their addition of the awesome pop machines (my pick: Diet Vanilla Coke with a splash of Diet Cherry Coke :) ). So last night John went through the drive through at McDonald’s, then we headed over to Wendy’s where he went through the drive through and I went inside (we had two coupons but you could only use one per order). Then we finally headed off to the park.

The other downside to the evening? Ryan had attempted to choke Josh before we left, so John told him he was not allowed to play on the playground – he would have to sit and watch while the other kids played. The other issue we had was when I called Kylie out for being super unkind and selfish to her brother, she ran off in a temper tantrum, and John gave her 5 seconds to come back, which she didn’t do, so she had to sit on the bench as well while Josh and Colton played.

Other than that, the night was fun! Colton walks and explores everything and wants to climb everything, and Josh threw a baseball with John and then went and climbed the rock wall.

Kylie was mean again on the car ride home, so I told her that she had to go inside right away, take her shower, and read Bible stories until bedtime. I told her I hoped she would see how Jesus wants us to act.

After Ky had been in her room for a while reading, I went in and talked to her. I told her that she is the sweetest, most loving and helpful girl most of the time. But that sometimes, she can be the meanest girl to her brothers, and she can’t do that. I know she really understood where I was coming from – I could see the understanding cross over her face while I talked. It is so hard to be a parent! I love that girl more than anything, and I can see how easy it would be to not worry about teaching her and disciplining her, but then I know I would end up with a monster!

Hopefully next Tuesday night park night will have all the kids playing on the playground :)