What seemed to be the beginning of a slow family night, turned into a night Kim and I have been waiting for since we moved to Georgia
Friday night started at Chick-Fil-A, with Kiss attending a birthday party until 6:30 so that left the rest of us eating dinner, then going home. When asking Madi what she wanted to do for her family night, all she wanted was to stay home and watch “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” The night was going to be a lazy, relaxing night. We thought.So after eating my delicious Spicy Chicken sandwich, I took Jackson home while Kim and Madi waited for Kiss to finish with her party. We get home, and just hang out and watch TV until 7pm rolls around. We usually put Jack to bed around 8, so I begin to get Jack ready for bed.
While I’m brushing his teeth I hear our garage door slam, followed by a bunch of kids talking. Madi’s family night just turned into movie night for the neighborhood kids. Our night with just us 5, turned into a total of 11.
Awesome.
Ever since Kim and I moved to Atlanta, we’ve wanted our house to be “that house” where the friends of our children would live close enough to just come over and hang out, a place where they could feel comfortable and safe. Even though it’s taken almost 5 years and another move 20 miles closer to our church, it’s finally happened and we couldn’t have happier hearts.
Oh yeah, even though the friends were mostly Kiss and Madi’s, Jack was content and completely in his element.
That is awesome. When our kids get older, I hope that our house is “that house” as well!
Well I’m sure I’ll write about the good AND the bad of having to be “that house” in the years to come. So you may (or may not) might want to reconsider as they get older, but I doubt it. hehe.
Stock up on fruit snacks, spaghetti and ready to bake cookies…
<3 u guys!
Salami
Seriously, I was just thinking about having a “cookie dough factory line” on one of my family nights like we did at your house. That rocked and EVERYBODY was involved!
That’s awesome! It’s so important that you get to know your kids’ friends. And what better place to hang out than your own home.
So, what do they call you? Mr. Ben?
Exactly, being a part of their lives and getting to know their friends is kind of a big deal to us.
Using Mr. Ben is only natural, right? Although I hate the “Mr.” part, I think it’s an age thing. At younger ages using “Mr.” is fine, but once they get older I insist they drop the “Mr.” part. For instance, the middle school boys I lead just call me Ben, and that’s fine.
Mr. Ben makes sense. This is Georgia, after all. Different manners.
That sounds like so much fun… I also hope we’re “that house” when we have kids and they grow into that age.
Ben,
I soooo want my House to be “that house”, too! My daughters are too young at present to have friends that could spend the night here, but someday…it’s gonna be awesome.
I told my bride that when our daughters are older and what-not, that I would love to have a cookout and split a cow in two and walk in between the pieces. Old school cookout, what? That would show the kids a thing or two about covenant! LOL! Jokes, just jokes!
Maybe I’ll just get some rattlesnakes and have a good, old fashioned Pentecostal sleepover, complete with snake handling. Think that would make an impression for Jesus? Yikes.
LOL… I have no words, but if you do anything CLOSE to that, please capture it on video.
Although, a nice good ‘ole Lechón would be pretty rad. I wonder what my landlord would think of a pit in the backyard we used to cook a pig in.
Don’t tell him. Just dig the pit, cook the pig, and then when he notices, tell him that God struck the ground in anger because He feels your rent is too high. Either you will get a reduction in your rent, or you will be asked to move.
Sorry, that’s all I got.
LOL
sorry we had to miss it, sounds like sooo much fun! The best is yet to come.
Thanks for the comment love mom! I don’t know if we can do all what dad did, with the entire HS football team coming over to eat teriyaki chicken, ribs, rice, mac n cheese, cornbread… oh man, is it lunchtime?
I hope it’s lunchtime because your response here made me ridiculously hungry. Thanks, Ben. Thanks so much.
Sure you can, son. You gotta keep on da tradition when the soccer teams come over to celebrate their victories!
That sounds like an awesome night. I envy your access to Chick-Fil-A. We don’t have ANY in the Northwest.
We’re hoping as our kids get older that our house will be a destination for them and their friends to hang out.
Whoa, no Chick-Fil-A?! The horror.
Seriously don’t know how my kids (me) would survive without Chickfila.
Dude, that is awesome. I hope that’s my house one day. Side note: the pics of the kids were awesome.
Thanks!
My wife and I have the same goal of making our house “that house.” We love having people over and want our daughters to feel like they can always have their friends at our place.
That’s awesome. It means a lot that their friends enjoy hanging out, but moreso it means a lot that my own children enjoy staying at home too.
Thanks for stopping by!