This weekend offered many firsts for our kiddos (and us for that matter!).  The wife and I thought that it might be fun to take M & B on a picnic.  In our heads we had it planned out that we would hit a shady park around lunch time on Saturday and we would have an authentic picnic.  However, the fact that we have two children that are of the age in which a daily nap is still a necessity, our vision of a proper picnic would not work.  Instead, after noon naps, we packed up a bevy of snack foods, loaded up the rug rats and headed out to have our makeshift picnic. 

We decided to venture away from our regular park and went to find a new spot for our picnic.  We searched online and settled on an old park near downtown Plano.  We selected this park partly because it was playing host to an event that we just had to witness.  That’s right, The Texas Tree Climbing Championships…in Plano???  Last I checked Plano was filled with overpriced homes and hordes of affluent drug addicted high schoolers.  I don’t recall seeing any trees that could serve as the championship of anything other than a coveted HOA yard of the month award.  Needless to say, we had to go if only to poke fun at the event.

We get to Bob Woodruff Park and we follow the signs pointing toward the” Tree Climbing Event”.  We get out of the car and, as expected, I am not seeing trees that are much different or larger than those on my street.  Oh well, we are here and we might as well set up our picnic and make fun of the arborlogical dorks.  We walk from the parking area on the sidewalk which quickly ducks out of the standard park clearing into a heavily wooded area. “Wow”, we said as we walk toward what have to be some of the larger trees that we have seen in Texas.  

Turns out that some of these trees are friggin’ close to 500 years old!  Maybe these arborlogical dudes are not dorks afterall…on second thought, they are still dorks…they are grown men…climbing trees…We decided to stay with the other 100 or so spectators (20 of which were a latino family having a cookout that just happened to be in the same place as the tree climbers).  So we spread out the ole blanket and broke out the snacks.  We stayed long enough to see two contestants and we had our fill of watching grown men do what we all did when we were 12.  I could swear I heard them announcing the next event, “Attention all sling shot and rock skipping contestants…”  as we made our way back to our car.  All in all, our first family “picnic” was a success and I am looking forward to doing it again (only without the overgrown kids hopefully).

Another first that was experienced this weekend was that I took M to see a movie in a theater.  I did not know what to expect because the girl cannot sit through a DVD at home without losing interest or talking the entire time.  We load up and head to the theater for the first showing of the day.  I was thinking perhaps the theater would not be crowded in the event that M decided to talk over the movie like she does at home.  As we pull into the parking lot I see few cars and the outlook is good for a small crowd. 

After a brief explanation to M on proper movie etiquette we make our way to the ticket booth.  At the last minute I make the judgement call and decide not to see the 3D version of the new Shrek joint.  I could see the excitement on M’s face.  It is the most awesome thing to witness a child in full amazement of what they are seeing or doing.  Her eyes were lit up and she was grinning so big that her eyes were squinted.  I can’t explain how it made me feel to see her so excited.  Next stop, the snack bar!

Just when I thought that her eyes couldn’t get any wider, they almost popped out of her head when she was standing, nose pressed to the glass of the candy display, and she heard me say, ” You can have any candy you want”.  While I was not pleased with her selection of Dots, I upheld my word and bought them for her.  Those have to be about the nastiest candy of all of the available choices.  Of course, that did not stop her from eating most of the box during the movie (aside from the couple that I had…I had to test for quality…yeah that’s it). 

We made our way into theater number 15, a fully packed, number 15.  “Oh great”, I thought as we grabbed the last two available seats.   My little etiquette lesson must have done some good because she hardly uttered a word during the entire movie except to tell me she needed to potty.  AND we only went to the potty once during the entire movie!  I could not believe that I walked into a movie theater with a three year-old and we sat through the entire movie in silence and only one short bathroom break.  It was at that moment that I realized that my toddler handles a movie better than her mother.  I think I just found my new movie date!