Dancing With the Tolands

I meant to post on Valentine’s day, but here we are, quite a few days later…let’s all just feign surprise.  In my defense, last week was very hectic and on Thursday night we were not only celebrating the big day of love, but also getting ready for my mom to have surgery early Friday morning.  More on that later.

We took the kids to Vinto, where we met the crew for some tasty Italian.  The crew meaning my mom, my sister Shea, her husband Paul, and their two little crazies, Otis and Lev.  Vinto has become one of my favorite places to take the kids for dinner here in town.  It is a big step up from the Old Spaghetti Factory and the delicious food comes quickly – meaning less time for my children to hang over the side of a booth and strike up conversations with a neighbor.  It is also a place where you can talk in a voice louder than a whisper, which is a bonus with a three-year old whose normal volume is somewhere between a shout and a screech.  The cherry on top is that Vinto’s waitstaff is very easy on the eyes.  It must be some sort of unspoken requirement that to work there you have no zits and very nice biceps.

I found it very funny when one of the waiters commented that he thought we were “brave” to bring four children under the age of eight to dinner on Valentine’s Day.  As if we had a choice.  I explained to him that was why I was drinking my Peronis so quickly.

As she does every year, my mom supplied us with big Valentine cookies from Backer’s Bakery.  They are the most delicious sugar cookie creations EVER.  Maybe because of our good sugar/beer buzz, I decided we should document our Valentine’s Day with photos of my children’s latest obsession – dancing to “Gangnam Style”.  We listen to this song at least five times a day.  So I will not kill the moment by saying I want to stick pins in my eyeballs each time it comes on.

Whoops, I already did.

Feel free to play the song as you check out our moves.  Maybe it will add to your experience of viewing the blurred photos, which just mean that we were REALLY getting down.

Do you see that daughter of mine?  Put that damn song on and she is a whirling dervish.  Sloan is an unfettered hoofer with lots of mad style.  I’m pretty sure she got her rhythmic instincts from her mama.