If you have been following some of my previous posts you will know that I became a father for the first time over the last year. And to top that off, I inherited a 10 year old stepson in the process. So, I got 2 for the price of 1!

Just like that I went from single and free, only worrying about myself, to worrying about the needs of 3 other people besides myself. It has been one hell of a ride so far and a major eye opener to say the least. 

I know a lot of you on here are fathers yourselves and might know a little bit what I am talking about here. For those of you that are not, and might not see the significance and the emotions involved when talking about one's children, all I can say to you is, "just wait, you'll see". :)

Backstory

Over the past couple months we had been working with my stepson very hard on his school work. Studies are not something that come easy for him naturally. So, we have been spending several hours each day going over every bit of his homework. We focus on his spelling, his vocab, his mathematics, and his reading specifically as those are the major areas he has tests on each week. 

Well, after many weeks of doing this, this past week he finally brought home all "3's" on his tests. A "3" represents roughly a "B" and contains only a couple mistakes, for those of you who were raised on the letter grading system back in the day like I was. A "4" would represent perfect work or an "A+". A "2" represents multiple errors and a "1" represents very few correct answers. 

Our deal with him was that if he were to bring home all "3's" (or higher), we would take him out to Peter Piper Pizza, buy him all the pizza and wings he could eat and give him a couple handfuls of tokens to play games with. This was great news for him but a side effect of this was that his litter sister (Alessandra), would get to experience Peter Piper Pizza for her very first time. That is exactly what happened this past weekend...

The following is a picture journey of my 1 year old daughter's first visit to Peter Piper Pizza:

Luckily for us she was too young to require many tokens and couldn't actually play most of the games. However, it was pretty fun for us to just watch her run from game to game pressing the buttons and looking in amazement at all the pretty lights. It was probably one of the most exciting days of her short life. 

I didn't include any pictures of my stepson at Peter Piper Pizza because this was probably his 50th time going since he has been alive. I didn't think that was quite as meaningful as a first timer. However, rest assured, he ate plenty of pizza and wings and played more games than he could probably count. He had a great time. 

Then to top it all off, the really great news for us came at the end of the evening. Alessandra had exhausted herself so much from all the running around and excitement that she went to sleep right away when we got home and gave mom and dad some much needed rest. That was our reward for the evening. Now that is what I call a successful family outing! ;)

Live well my friends!

Follow: @jrcornel

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