April-The Bucket List Date

Last night we had our April date-"The Bucket List".  I actually had to switch our original April date with June's date because I just didn't have time to pull-off the original April date the way I wanted to.  I hope that Adam wasn't too disappointed (since he actually remembers what April was supposed to be).  Anyway, I left this cute little bucket along with the DVD case for the movie "The Bucket List" on the counter by Adam's sink yesterday morning.
 

In case you can't read the note, it says, "You can't 'kick the bucket' yet-we still have so much to do!  Join me tonight @7:00 for "The Bucket List" date!  Come prepared to laugh, cry and DREAM!"

It worked out pretty well because we'd already planned to have oven fried chicken for dinner last night.  I just told Adam to pretend we were eating it out of a bucket. :)

After we got the kids in bed, we kicked back with our bucket of kettle corn, and enjoyed watching the movie together.  Neither of us had seen the movie before (at least not the whole thing), but Heather had bought it for Adam for his birthday, so that worked out really well.  I thought the movie was pretty good, though there is a bunch of crude language in it.

When the movie was over, we got our pen and paper and started making a bucket list together.  One of these days I will post it on our family blog, so we always have it somewhere handy, but it includes some things like: go on a cruise, give up our place in line to a young family with several kids, take the kids to Disneyland/Disneyworld, finish the Book of Mormon as a family and the standard works as a couple, etc.  It was fun to be able to talk about the things we'd like to be able to do together someday and to start to plan for or keep working on some of them now.

This date was super simple and I threw it together very quickly.  It cost us $1 for the bucket and $1 for the popcorn (though I didn't buy that specifically for this date).  So it was really cheap, simple, and easy to plan, but it was very enjoyable and something we'll be able to look back on and remember for a long time!

March-My Favorite Things

This date was really a week-long celebration of My Favorite Things. Adam did an awesome job planning it. We did it backwards from the original date idea here, but I almost think it was more fun that way! For our actual date, we went to Applebees for dinner. We went there for a couple reasons: 1. I really do like Applebees, and 2. we had a $10 gift card there and I LOVE to save money whenever I can (though I really like to spend it too :))! We ordered their 2 for $20 deal and got one of my favorite appetizers, honey BBQ boneless wings. I ordered an Oriental Chicken Salad which is one of my favorites. After dinner, Adam said we could go home and play a game of my choice or watch one of my favorite movies. I actually opted to go to Walmart instead. Not because that's my favorite thing, but because I much prefer going with only a baby than going with 4 kids. We were looking for a dress for me to wear to Nate and Amys' wedding, so especially that kind of shopping is much better without the whole gang. We did find a Ghirardelli Turtle Brownie Mix at Walmart which is definitely one of my new favorite things! I hadn't had it before, but was pretty sure I'd love it, so we got that for our dessert for the night.

On Saturday (St. Patrick's Day), Adam gave me another of my favorite things-a bit of peace and quiet! While Andrew and Hannah were taking naps, he took Brooke and Cameron to Walmart with him to pick up some more of my favorites. They were gone for 2 hours! I thought for sure they'd gotten lost and found the park on the way home or something, but they really were at Walmart that long. They must have literally been searching the entire store to find the perfect things for me! :)

They came back with this beautiful bouquet of flowers. I especially like the orchids.



Sunday morning I woke up to this Honeycomb on the table along with a VIP pass for a massage. But then Adam did something else I love and made breakfast that morning, so I ended up not eating the Honeycomb then.

On Sunday night, after the kids went to bed, Adam and I did get to play a game since we didn't ever do that on Friday night.

Tuesday morning I found this note on our board:

And this on my jewelry box:

I even shared a little bit!

Wednesday morning I got some bath salts:

And this note:

And Thursday morning I discovered another new favorite on the counter (I'd never had them before, but Adam knows me well enough to know I would love them):

And this note:

It was an awesome week! I felt so very loved. At the end of the week I told Adam that everyone should get a "Favorite Things" week now and then. I think we'll have to do it for the kids sometimes.

Chineese and First Date

For our first date of 2012 we did the Chinese Date. It consisted of "decorating" our living room with bamboo mats and a bouquet of flowers, picking up some take-out Chinese food, and watching the Chinese-American figure skaters on TV during the World Championship qualifying meet. We had a great time trying to eat our food in the authentic Chinese way, with chop sticks, and stealing bites from each others plates.


The second date was a throw back to our early dating days. It was to re-create our first date. Luckily, our first date was pretty low key, so subsequently, so was this date. On our original first date, we went to the Pioneer Theater on the University of Utah campus, and watched the play "The Importance of Being Earnest." This became our first date, after retrospection, when we realized that Trevor had paid for both tickets, and no one else from their apartment group showed up. They ended up having tickets on the very front row of the theater. Elise sat next to a very smelly man during the first act, and at intermission Trevor offered to change seats with her. Fortunately for all involved, the stinky man never returned. To re-create this date, we rented the movie "The Importance of Being Earnest" staring Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett. Then we pulled the love seat up close to the television, and enjoyed remembering the witty plot of this fun romantic theatrical production. We also ate too much brownies and ice cream (which did not happen during the original dating event).

A Date that Scores!

Our February date was called "A Date that Scores". We did it on Saturday night and it was ton of fun (minus the sick little baby that didn't want to go to sleep). This was a basketball themed date. I found the idea from The Dating Divas here. And since I always tell people that I am not creative, but can replicate really well, that is exactly what I did. :)

Here was the set-up for our date:

A basketball hoop borrowed from a friend and masking tape court for our shooting contests:

The Concession stand:

And we had Adam's laptop hooked up to the TV so we could watch the game. It was BYU@Portland. Not a huge game, but it was on the night we were available for our date. It didn't start until 9 pm, so it was late enough that all the kids were (supposed to be) in bed. Hannah didn't quite cooperate, but it worked out okay.

To start off, I had some papers for us to guess some of the stats of the game. Some of the things to guess were: the final score, half-time score, which team got the tip-off, number of turnovers for BYU, field goal and 3-point percentage, etc. Adam and I ended up being pretty close to each other on some of our guesses. (Here's a tip: if you want to do this, but don't follow the team at all, check out the team's website for stats so you can at least guess in the right ballpark. That's what I did. Some may call it cheating. I think it's just evening the playing field. :)) As we watched the game we awarded points for whoever was the closest on each item. Some had to wait until the end of the game, while others we knew earlier on who got the point. In the end, it was me who guessed closer on more items! I think I should have got an extra point because my points from field goals, 3-pointers, and free throws actually added up to the final score I guessed, and Adam's was way off.

So we had the guessing game going throughout the game. Also, anytime BYU scored a 3-pointer we kissed. I think there were only 3 the entire game and they all happened when I was holding Hannah.

By half-time Hannah was finally asleep. During half-time, we had some shooting contests. We first tried to shoot as many 3-point baskets as we could in 30 seconds. I think in the end we tied at 11. Then we were going for the most 3-pointers out of 10 shots. Adam got 9; I made all 10!

And then we had a "dunking" contest. Okay, really we just ate mint Oreos dunked in milk.

Throughout the game we ate our concessions: kettle corn, A&W rootbeer, and a variety of candies.

And of course on commercials we pulled out the "kissing cam". As hard as it is to take pictures of yourself, it's even harder when you're trying to kiss at the same time!

All in all, we had an awesome date! It was fun to hang out and watch the game that Adam likely would have watched anyway, with a bit of a twist. And BYU won!

You Tube Date

After the kids were in bed, we sat in our bed and watched the listed You Tube videos... we had a fun time laughing. Its always fun to get on You Tube and jump from video to video and laugh your heads off. The funnest one we watched was of this kid- trying to be Luke Skywalker but ended up looking ridiculous instead. Watch it here.


*Original date idea from The Dating Divas.

Spa Night

For January, our date was "Spa Night", inspired by this date. Adam was in charge of planning it.

For several days leading up to our date, I got text messages that awarded me "spa bucks" to use on our date. For example, I earned 30 spa bucks for taking care of sick kids for a couple of days. I was always excited to see how many spa bucks I earned and for what.

Our actual date took place on two different nights. I was going out with some friends Wednesday night so we didn't have time to do the whole thing. I arrived at the "spa" (our bedroom/bathroom) after our kids went to bed that night. Adam had a spa brochure (printed from the link above) for me to choose which services I wanted. I had a nice massage followed by a hot shower. When I got out of the shower, Adam had warm towels waiting for me. It was very nice.

Last night I had another "appointment", this time for a manicure/pedicure. This time I got to take a nice relaxing bath followed by warm towels again. Adam used the pedicure set I have to smooth out my feet. He massaged my hands and feet. He also gave me a nice shoulder/neck massage.

Both nights were nice and relaxing. I knew that Adam was thinking about me and what I like. And really, I could get used to having a warm towel when I get out of the shower! :)

Welcome!

All married/engaged members of our families received memberships to "The Date of the Month Club" from us for Christmas this year. We provided date plans for each couple to have one creative date each month for a year. Some printables were provided for the couples and some couples received additional supplies to aid them in planning their dates. Spouses will take turns planning the dates each month. This blog is designed for everyone to post about their dates. This way Adam and I can see our presents in action and everyone can get ideas from others' dates. Most of the ideas/inspiration for these dates came from loveactually-blog.blogspot.com or thedatingdivas.com. Check them out for even more romance ideas!