dinner dates

Going into this summer, I knew that dinner time could potentially be a pretty lonely time. I know I have Leah as my buddy, but 1) it's hard to cook for just two people and 2) it's hard to feed someone dinner and then feed myself a cold dinner after that. 

Enter amazing friends. 

Because I'm not the only one whose husband is away this summer, we've been lucky enough to dine with other families on multiple occasions. I think for the first three weeks, Michelle and I ate dinner together with our four kids every single weeknight but one. 

We've had a few mishaps, like when I was cooking a frozen lasagna and it took way longer than it should have, so we had to cook a different meal on the fly. No worries - Trader Joe's to the rescue. And we ate the lasagna the next night. 

We've also deemed Friday night pizza/movie night and it's been fun to try different recipes and see new movies! I did pick up two $5 hot and ready pizzas one night and am so scarred that that probably won't happen again. The Little Caesars is inside KMart here (classy, right?). When I arrived (it's 20 minutes from my house), I realized I forgot the Baby Bjorn for Kate, which presents a huge dilemma. I decided to deal with it and go ahead and get the pizzas because turning around to get it would be an additional 40 minutes of driving. I carried Kate in her car seat, buckled Leah into her stroller and wheeled her in. My arm was killing me by the time I got to the counter as the stroller is nearly impossible to steer with one hand. I thought surely the pizzas would fit in the basket underneath the stroller. Nope. So I jammed one in sitting on its side and carried the other. So now I'm pushing a stroller with a pizza box in one hand and a 12 pound baby plus her car seat in the other, trying to steer. For the most part, people are friendly in New Hampshire, but apparently the ones who shop at KMart aren't because I got no offers for help with doors or anything until I was about 5 feet from my car. They just stared. And the pizza in the stroller was a mess by the time we ate it. It was pretty awesome. And I will never be doing that again. (Please try and refrain from telling me what I should have done to make the situation easier - like putting Leah in a shopping cart rather than the stroller because it could have held the pizzas too. I'll just feel dumb and really, I've probably already thought of it. But at the time she was so dizzy, I didn't think of there being another option other than getting her sitting down from the get go.)

On another note, we've had some great dinners including lots of yummy bbqs and a birthday celebration for Mr. D's 7th birthday at KOTO (here he is sporting his new straw glasses from Leah).

{Doesn't Leah look happy!? Promise she was. She and D especially loved the fire and food being thrown. And don't forget Miss Kate in the background - she was a champ.}

My motto this summer has been the more the merrier when it comes to eating. The conversation is great and it, thankfully, prevents me from eating the same thing for leftovers for an entire week. Three cheers for dinner dates!