Speaking of Academic Night

When we started going to these 3 years ago, we began the tradition of taking our kids out to dinner for this special night -- some one-on-one time with Mom and Dad, which is so completely rare at our house. When we first started, we always took the opportunity to give the "education" speech. How important it is, and how great it is to do well, and so forth.

These talks immediately take me back to my childhood, when I was constantly told that my job was to work at school, that doing my best in school would get me farther than anything else I was doing at the time. I've always appreciated that advice. Thanks, Dad!

One year Marshall was out of town for Academic Night and so her best friend Braelyn and her mom and I went out to the Olive Garden. Now, THAT's the tradition. This is fun, too, but the speeches have gotten much shorter over the years. This year we added their friend Amy to the mix, and the speech was something like, "Now you have to keep this up so we can go to The Olive Garden every year." Whatever works.