Dates

Happy New Year!!Many of you have asked me about how our 'date' thing works so, rather than the usual flowers you are getting a different kind today. I hope that it will inspire you to spend time with someone! My husband and I have surely come to appreciate whenever we receive a gift that comes in the form of time spent with us, our kids or enabling us to spend time together or with our families. This idea can certainly be adapted to a spouse, a friend, neighbor or as we use it, for our kids.

Having 5 children and running a business sometimes makes itdifficult to spend time one on one with our kids. At first we thought we would just take them out once in awhile. Unfortunately,we found that without a concrete plan those dates didn't really materialize. We decided that we needed to do something a little more deliberate. We plan a particular event to do with each child each month. We set a limit on the amount of money spent (if any) and also decide who will take them on that particular date. Obviously Dad gets to do some of the more 'guy' things to do with his boys. Fortunately for us our boys also like to do artsy things so mom gets to do those kinds of things with them. This year we will also be employing a new twist with our oldest son who is 8 1/2 - gentleman lessons! Dad will take him out and help him plan out a 'date' that he needs to execute, it will involve planning, budgeting and escorting mom out to some kind of activity. Dad will coach him through the various aspects of how to treat a lady, good manners and chivalrous behaviour. Then he gets to practice on mom. We figured that the sooner he gets good at treating the female gender with respect and courtesy the better. We'll see how that goes.

Now we weren't perfect with getting every single date in, some ofthem were very weather dependent and our weather wasn't so great this year. But over all the kids figured it was the best present they got last year and we enjoyed it, too. It was a gift that kept giving all year and they are eager for this year's dates. As I said earlier, this could easily be adapted to fit for a spouse, or a friend, you just need to change the events! Here are some ideas of dates that you could use!

bike ride
movie and popcorn
breakfast (or any other meal)
picnicplay time at a park (with just you)
swimming
breakfast in bed
pony ride (if you know someone who has a horse)
camp-out
go-karting
ice-cream date
tea party with all the fixings(dressed up really fancy, too)
we have a store here where you can make beaded jewelry so each of thekids got to make a necklace with their name in it
I am a member of a scrapbooking store - we'll be making trips there this year
spray parks in warmer weather
library
museums
maybe there is some special entertainment that is appropriate that you could work in if you know it in advance
special request dessert or meal

If any of you have other ideas that could be added to the list add them into the comments. If you don't have a blogger account, you can comment using the 'anonymous' button.