Our family resolution at the beginning of 2008 was to have a weekly family night. Here are the rules:

• one member of the family is in charge each week
• no TV, computers, video games, phone calls
• just the four of us

We’ve stuck to the rules, except for the time that the boy and Daddy co-planned one week. And except for the time when the girl had us all watch a movie after making dinner together. And except for last weekend.

It was the boy’s turn to plan on Friday night. The plan was to: (1) get pizza for dinner, and (2) go outside, lay on blankets, and count the stars. Which is really a great plan. It was a little cold outside for the star viewing, but still not impossible.

Our next door neighbors are good friends, and have kids the same age as ours. We frequently swap kids, share rides, do all kinds of things together. Friday afternoon, the neighbor kids were playing at our house, and all four kids were begging to eat dinner together. I summoned all my leadership strength and held up the vision for family night once more. The neighbors went home, Daddy picked up pizza for our family. And somehow, we all ended up agreeing that we should go to our neighbors’ house for the evening. So, we spent Friday night watching ‘Transformers’ with them (which is almost exactly like the four of us spending a peaceful evening under the stars).

And by the way, if you’ve seen ‘Transformers’, you should know that the company my husband works for did quite a lot of motion graphics work for the movie, which is why we own a copy.

Last night, after bedtime, our boy remembered that we had not done the star-gazing thing. And he was sad. Fortunately, he has a Twilight Turtle, which casts stars all over the room. So we all gathered on a blanket and counted the stars on his ceiling. We even had the presence of mind to spend some time praying together. It was a good moment.

Recent family moments for you?

overheard during Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D concert movie:
N — wow, Disney’s loving Kenny Ortega, aren’t they….. Jonas brothers must have had some amazing studio producers.…… did you see that camera….
K — So there really IS no end to what kind of production money can buy…..You have to admire a 15 year old girl who can pull this off…..Jonas brothers–yikes…..
H — this is awesome!!! …. she’s really singing that, right?…..I LOVE the Jonas brothers.
J — these glasses hurt my head…. mom, I’m hungry….. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……..

overheard during U2 3D:
N — (awed silence occasionally punctuated by) wow….oh that’s cool….
K — (awed silence occasionally punctuated by) wow….oh that’s cool….
H — I guess they’re good at what they do. I don’t really like their songs, though. They don’t mean anything.
J — oh that’s awesome… oh THAT’S awesome…. mom, can we buy this movie?…. can I get drums like that?…. why doesn’t daddy have that many guitars?