Mother Son Night

I have mentioned in my 31 Days of Teachable Parenting Series about being fun and spontaneous. Last year I implemented this by starting a tradition of taking my son Z out for special time with mom. Last year we had a blast participating in Chic-Fil-A's Mother Son Date Knight. It was such a refreshing opportunity for one-on-one time with my oldest that when I saw that Z's school was doing their own mother son event I jumped at the chance to participate! At this age I am blessed to admit that Z gets just as much (if not more) excited about these outings than I do. He even put it on the calendar for me. Does it get anymore precious than that!? 

The concept for Mother Son Game Night was that each mother/son combo was a team that would compete for tickets against other mothers and sons. At the end there would be a raffle drawing with prizes. I wish I would have had some photos of all the amazing minute-to-win-it games that they had set up, but I was under strict orders by my date that I was not to bring my camera. I am glad he told me and I respect that. It's hard as a photographer/blogger to put down my monstrous SLR, but I am glad I did because how would I have been able to do the sack race? 

Or my favorite game, and Z's too, where you had to hold a ball (about he size of a basketball) in-between the two of you without using your hands and then race against the other team to the finish line without dropping the ball! We lost, but they gave us an honorable mention for our technique. I pretty much did a sideways gallop down the course. 

Even though I wasn't able to get any photos of all the games I sneak in a quick session outside of our apartment before we left. 

We chose to be the western team because we are from Texas, so it seemed to be a good fit.

Although, just because we are from Texas doesn't mean we own Texas stuff. I had to post an ISO status on Facebook and was so pleased with how my church friends really pulled through for us! 

Z's entire outfit was a loaner from someone that saw my request online.

I borrowed the hat and boots from ladies at church, but the cow belt is a part of my Chic-Fil-A cow day costume.

One of the highlights of the evening for me was when he gave me a rose. At first he said that I could NOT post this photo on Facebook, but then later he changed his mind about it. Cutie. 

This was the caption on the instagram I posted that night "I have had a rough week, but getting to spend Friday night with this little cowboy made up for all of it." 

I was able to leave all the stress at home, loosen up, and just enjoy the best company any mom could ask for. 

The evening ended with us getting the boot in the photo booth line. It was really long, and they had been going all night so we just happened to show up a little too late. I was bummed, but then it occurred to me "There's an app for that". So I immediately downloaded a free app on the spot and we did our own version of the photo booth.

I can't share about this evening without giving a big shout out to Z's school for placing so much value on the family unit. The event was free and even included a meal for the mothers and sons. They had encouraging quotes and decorations throughout the school and "Bob Barker" was the host. It takes a lot of work to pull something like this off and they did a PHENOMENAL job! 

If you've got a little guy at home I would encourage you to find a reason to go out together. You'll both be glad you did!