Single Lady Date Night

The other night, I got my hair all done up, my nails did, threw on a cute pair of shoes, and went out for a night on the town with my date(s). Plural.  Yes, there are two men in my life now. I am quite the hussy. 

When I go on dates with my boyfriends, they are not what you would call typical.  I usually end up paying, my dates don't drink alcohol, table manners are discussed at length, and if I am lucky, my dates don't yell in the middle of dinner, but they may turn around in their seats a bit to check out the establishment. 

You have probably guessed it by now, but Carlo and Eli are my dates for the evening.  I know you are wondering where I went on my hot date with my young ones. Well, basically my boyfriends only love three places: Red Robin, McDonald's, or Teriyaki chicken. Thus, I had to opt for the fancier option out of the three choices and head to the wonderful establishment of Red Robin.

Here is the steamy play by play of the dinner date action.

5:00 Arrive at Red Robin for dinner.  Yes, we eat at 5:00 because Eli goes to bed at 7:00pm and we have to do baths and all of that.

5:01 Get ushered into a part of the restaurant where nobody is present.  I have a feeling this is because one of my dates is one and the other date is four years old.

 

5:04 Waitress arrives and takes our order immediately.  She works here and understands that there cannot be long pauses or breaks when dining with small ones or chaos will ensue. Carlo decides he wants to get the messiest item available, so we order spaghetti and broccoli.

5:05 The water arrives and Eli wants to eat my lemon.  I give it to him and he proceeds to suck on it, make a crazy puckering lip expression, spit, and then suck on it again.

5:12 Carlo is coloring on his place mat.  Eli is now eating a crayon instead of the lemon.

5:13 Another family is actually seated by us.  They also have a one year old.  Random thought of the night: Does Red Robin group babies in sections of the restaurant on purpose?

5:15 The food arrives. I pass out Carlo and Eli's utensils and food.

5:16 Carlo pretends a noodle is a mustache. I ask him to please use a fork.

5:19 Carlo wants to know what is going on with the people behind him.  I ask him to turn around please.

5:20 Eli decides it is a good idea to dunk his old lemon from earlier on in the meal into the ketchup from the shared fries.

5:23 Eli drops all of the baskets, menus, and napkins on the floor, while mom is taking a bite of burger.

 

 

5:25 Carlo uses manner and daintily wipes his mouth with his napkin, and I feel like a proud momma who taught her son some manners.  But then he follows it up with a sleeve wipe.

5:30 Eli finds a fork and bangs it on the table, while I am drinking my water.  I almost spill the water before I can take away the fork.  Phew.  Disaster averted and fork noise only lasted a second.

5:31 I ask for the check, but there is a random hot chocolate on the bill, so the waitress has to redo it.

5:37 We leave the restaurant and walk back to our truck just in time to avoid the rain. Date night was a success because there were no abnormally loud noises coming from my table, the kids ate and so did I, and nobody got hurt. Sweet.

Carlo and Eli, we will have to do this again sometime. 

(Side note: you might think that I really love Red Robin because I write about eating there a lot.  The truth is, I go there because more often than not, there are plenty of screaming kids, loud noises and so on, so a couple of little one aren't going to ruin any one's real romantic night out. I would love to go out to Pasta Bellas in Ballard, but will have to go on a momma's night out excursion.)

Anybody know any other kid friendly restaurants?