Polo Grill

Mom's cousin was getting married on the same day at the same time as E's first recital.  Mom made a difficult decision and decided to miss out on the wedding and focus on the recital.  The bride was gracious enough to include us in the rehearsal dinner so we could celebrate with them.  It was at the Polo Grill, a fancy restaurant that we would never take the kids to "in real life".  The kids were invited though, so we dressed everyone up and talked extensively about manners the day before.  The kids did great! 

Please don't read anything into this.  This is a very special and perfect dinner through a mom's eyes.  It was a beautiful occasion and was absolutely amazing!!  We had a blast and were so honored to be included. 

So rehearsal dinners are more of an event than a regular dinner by design.  The kids were entertained at first by the novelty of the fancy restaurant and all of the people.  Then they were just hungry.  Bless the groom's heart - he made special arrangements to have a kid's menu for Ben and Elizabeth.  Score!  The waiter even came to give us a preview of what they could order.  Grandma had crayons which lasted as entertainment a while and then they were still just hungry.  It was later than normal dinner time, but thankfully they brought the kids' meals around the time the grownups got soups/salads instead of waiting for the main course.  Elizabeth is a macaroni and cheese fanatic.  You have to be careful at a fancy restaurant though and this was no exception.  Her macaroni was actually rotini of various colors with a fancy multi-cheese sauce.  It was not going to pass her lips.  Luckily Ben had enough chicken strips to feed our family and graciously shared with Sister.  Crisis averted!  Ben had a small gagging incident when he was challenged to try spinach in exchange for all of the strawberries on Dad's salad.  He got it choked down though.  On the other hand, he had his first Shirley Temple and was pleased with that discovery although he didn't like the fizz very much. 

It was such a special time and the kids were champs considering how long they had to sit still.