Date Nights

 

At the beginning of last year, a couple of my friends talked about a challenge to do a date night each month.  I loved that idea.  Date night every week is too hard right now (and expensive...) but each month is very doable!  I kept a list of our date nights for 2012 and it was fun to look back and see what all we did.  We were able to manage at least one date each month (and we are off to a great start for 2013!)  I don't have pictures for them all... but here is what 2012 looked like for us:

 

 

• January:  We had a "New Year's Date"... we closed on our house 2 weeks before Christmas and had lots of fun painting with friends.  My parents took the kids for a few days over New Year's.  Our New Year's was nothing fancy but we had a lot of fun.  We spent the afternoon painting and cleaning.  We went to Ikea that evening for dinner and house shopping.  After our shopping trip we watched the movie "New Year's" then came home to finish the night with more painting and dessert.  We loved being able to "camp out" in our new house (no furniture yet--we slept on an air mattress!)
• February:  Our first date night in February was Valentine's.  Our small group did an adults only dinner--we had taco night!  We also had a surprise shower for one of the couples in our group.
• February:  We got to attend the YMCA gala with our friends Joel & Erica...

•  March:  Marc took a half day the Friday of Hearts at Home.  We had lunch together at Chili's and enjoyed some shopping time before I left.
• April:  We took advantage of Marc's sister visiting and went to see the Hunger Games... I had been waiting weeks to see it and Marc was sweet enough to go with me (he loved it!)  After the movie we went to Applebees for 1/2-price appetizers.
• May:  We got to go the Morning Star Mission Gala (one perk of Marc's job is free tickets to things like this--we just have to get a babysitter.  Last year the gala was the day before Mother's Day, also the same day we decided to do "Ride the Rock" with our kids... we were exhausted!

•  June:  We used a gift certificate to go out to eat at a Steakhouse.  Marc also took me to Old Navy to do some summer clothes shopping.
• July:  We had an amazing Anniversary "Date" Weekend!  My parents took the kids for 4 days for us.  We went to a movie one night (this night was great because we split a burrito at Chipotle, went to the dollar theater and used a coupon for popcorn/soda... so with no babysitting cost our date night was less than $15!)  The next night we went to eat at Panera and walk around the mall--with NO KIDS!  We also rented a movie.

• July:  For our "BIG" anniversary date we drove up to Michigan and spent the day exploring.  We loved driving through Harbor County and looking at the beach houses and fun places to stay.  We parked and walked down to the beach--it was gorgeous!  We stopped at a Farmer's Market and some antique shops.  We had a late lunch at a local place.  We walked downtown New Buffalo and stopped at lots of "touristy" shops.  We bought some popcorn.  We stopped at an outlet mall on the way home.  We had all the fixins' to make ourselves a yummy dinner (with fresh corn and veggies from the farmer's market) but we had to save it for another day because we were too tired!  

• August:  Marc and I had a lunch date on Marc's birthday.  His birthday was on a Friday this year and my friend Michelle and I traded babysitting on Fridays so it was fun to have lunch with no kids!
• August:  We volunteered at Royal Family Kids Camp for their "birthday party day".  Our small group decided to do this as a group project.  We drove to camp and helped behind the scenes to set up a HUGE birthday party for 50 foster kids.  We wrapped presents, decorated, helped pass things out, made sno-cones (my favorite part!) and popcorn, and cleaned up.  It was nice to have a day with no kids--we enjoyed some Starbucks in the morning and were able to stop at our favorite sandwich place (Obee's) in Ottawa on our way to get the kids from Ms. Jennifer's.
• September:  We had our annual "Homecoming" weekend at WIU.  My mom met us Friday night in Macomb to take the kids.  We spent the night at Lindsey's parents' farm.  On Saturday we enjoyed our ritual--breakfast & coffee, parade, lunch at Rocky's, shopping at Gumbarts & the Bookstore, game-guys & coffee shop-girls, and dinner at Aurelios.  It's always a perfect weekend! 

• September:  Our small group had a fish fry.  Our friend Joel goes fishing each summer in Canada and was generous enough to share with us (and cook for us!) fresh caught fish.  It was so yummy!  We had a blast laughing, talking, hanging out--as always.
•  October:  I purchased a Groupon for a local pumpkin farm.  While Marc's sister was with us for a weekend, Marc and I snuck out to go through a haunted maze (really fun and cheesy!) and a moonlight hayrack ride.  We of course had to have some coffee when we were done.

•  October:  Some friends of ours planned a murder mystery dinner.  We were a bit stressed choosing our "60's" themed outfits, but we had such a blast.  Biggest surprise of the evening... I was the murder!

•  November:  More dressing up!  Our church's annual gala was "80's" themed this year.  We had so much fun!  We went out for drinks afterwards with lots of our friends.  Another fun part of the evening--getting to announce that we were expecting!

 

• December:  We were so lucky this year to have 2 weekend get-aways with our amazing WIU friends!  We cooked up this plan during our Homecoming weekend.  We had an AMAZING Chicago weekend... shopping, lunch at Reza's, Christmas lights on Michigan Ave, downtown hotel, limo to dinner, dinner at Table 54, drinks at the hotel, and breakfast at Orange.  LOVED every second (except the Sunday morning part where Marc got sick.) 

• December:  For the last 2 years now Ms. Jennifer has kept the kids for an overnight in December so we could Christmas shop.  We are beyond grateful for this blessing!  This year we took the day to help with Ms. Pearl's toyshop--we delivered a HUGE amount of toys that our church family collected for her.  We helped set up and work at the toyshop--Marc was the cashier and I wrapped presents.  Afterwards we had lunch at Panda Express and finished up our Christmas shopping.  We ended the night with our small group White Elephant Party--always a complete blast!  

• December:  We got to sneak in one more "date" the last week of December.  We found out right before New Year's that our friends' (Joel & Erica) son Evan was diagnosed with Leukemia.  We were absolutely shocked.  You hear stories, but having it hit so close to home was a game changer.  We weren't sure how we could best love them but we knew we wanted to be there. He was taken to the hospital late on Friday and diagnosed Saturday morning.  We were planning to have our friend Sarah & Eli over for lunch Sunday after church...  they agreed to hang out with our kids so we could make a trip to Hope Children's Hospital to visit Joel and Erica.  We weren't sure if we would be able to see them but we just wanted to hug them and pray with them if we could.  They didn't know we were coming... we stopped on the way to make a goodie bag for Evan and pick up some treats for Joel and Erica too (I LOVE doing stuff like that!)  We also got Subway to eat in the car.  We had an amazing time.  It was a quiet afternoon for them and we were able to visit for over 2 hours (mostly just listening) and even see Evan.  This obviously wasn't our ideal "date" but I love being able to serve with my husband.  I love being the body of Christ together as we live out our lives...

WOW is all I can say after writing this post...  I feel SO blessed!  We're blessed by friends and family who love our kids enough to spoil them while we can get some one-on-one time, we're blessed with amazing friends (both new and old) who love to hang out and have fun together, we're blessed with opportunities to serve others TOGETHER, and most of all we're blessed with an AMAZING marriage.