Witching Hour or Happy Hour?

Mom's at a fancy conference all week in Florida so I decided to take the girls to a bar.  Well, not just any bar -- I took them to Scholz's Biergarten, an Austin/politico establishment.

Lots of babies have a "witching hour" or a period when they are overtired and cranky before bed.  The littles actually get pretty saucy -- lots of squeaking and squawking -- and they are really fun to hang out with.  So, I decided to take them to happy hour.  It was a celebration for finishing off our most recent report for work and it was either go with babies or skip it.  Wouldn't you go?

I was planning to do it by my lonesome and just meet up with folks there, but Kelly graciously agreed to help.  We did a quick round at the office to show them off and then it was Miller time... or Dos Equis and some kind of wheat beer time.

As always, the ladies were a hit.  (At what age do you stop bragging that your female children are great in bars?)  There were lots of new faces and things to see.  Between the neon lights, screens running SportsCenter, and the gaggle of Iphones on the table, "My Barnyard Friends" and other child-appropriate toys were pretty much ignored.  As for menu, they went with the cheese cubes and puffs rather than fried pickles or something off the menu ... perhaps a wise choice.*  My co-workers were awesome and provided tons of baby wrangling assistance.

Since we stayed out a little late (5:45 pm!) we had to skip baths.  As a result the nutterbutters went to bed smelling a little like BBQ, but all in all it was a wild success.

Below is a terrible Iphone photo intended only to document the event and Em's new smug face.  This is a new one she likes to wear from time to time.

* For the record, I would not have fed them fried pickles or food from Scholz's.  Not that it isn't tasty, it's just that their palette isn't there quite yet.