Date Night: Ice Cream Taste Testing

We have a fun date planned for this weekend that I'm really excited about.  But, in the mean time I thought I would share with you a date that my husband came up with a while back.  It was cheap, delicious, fun, and the best part....he thought of it all on his own!

Here's how it went down:
While I was putting the kids to bed he made a quick trip to the store and picked out six different mini containers of icecream ($1 each at the grocery store). Once the kids were asleep we embarked on a taste test in which we scored each type of icecream based on flavor, texture, and the "would you want to eat a whole bowl of it?" question.

We gave points for each category but this was so super casual that we just jotted our scores down on a slip of paper.  (You could make a scoring sheet but we had a small baby who wasn't sleeping through the night so we were lucky to even stay awake on a date :) It was fun to compare all the different kinds side by side and we ate right out of the containers just because we could. The results: Haagen Daas is much creamier and better than Ben and Jerry's. However, they were all delicious and added up to an incredibly high calorie total that we decided not to think about as long as we don't do this date too often :)

We conducted this taste test by candlelight (dessert +candlelight+ quiet= happiness) and he even provided goblets with water and Martinelli's Sparkling Cider to rinse our palettes between icecream flavors.

It was sweet and easy and fun and I loved him all the more for planning it. Only I'm looking at my waistline right now and wondering if next time we'll have to have a bottled water and celery taste test instead.  But, let's be honest, that wouldn't be nearly as fun.  Six kinds of icecream now and then never really hurt anyone right?

Date Night: Painting Our Portraits

This weekend we did something we have never done before for date night. Something that in all my twenty eight years I have never tried at all.  We REALLY ventured from the norm and decided to.....
 PAINT!  Now, I  would like to preface this post with the fact that neither my husband nor I have any artistic training....or for that matter, ability.  And no, we didn't think that we would be producing anything that would be museum quality.  But, we thought it might be fun to try to paint each other's portraits. 

So, I stopped by our local Michael's and picked up the supplies.  Since we are total amateurs, and we are also cheap, I decided to forgo the nice brushes and oil paints and go for acrylics.  I bought some basic colors of acrylic craft paint and a five dollar pack of brushes.

 Then, I decided to go big time and get real canvas for us to paint on.  It felt fancy.  The canvas came in a two pack so it worked out nicely.  I also picked up a little plastic paint palette for us to mix our colors on. 

The total for all of the supplies was only about fifteen dollars.  Easels, on the other hand, are a little more pricey. And, since I wasn't about to buy one, we just leaned our canvases up against a Pampers box (that's our life and we've accepted it).

When all the kids were asleep we set up our paint station and turned on our favorite music playlist. The only strategy we could think of was to paint the background first. So, that's what we did.

 And then it was just us.  We spent several hours working on our masterpieces.  The fun part was that we got to really just look at each other.  We studied each other's eyes and mouths and tried to reproduce a skin color that was true to life.  We talked and sang along to our favorite songs and laughed at how bad our art skills were.

And, in the end we stayed up WAY past bedtime because we were having so much fun.  Suprisingly, my husband said that painting was one of his favorite dates that we've had.  And to top it all off he told me that it reminded him how beautiful all of me features are...now THAT'S a good date!  I am currently trying to think of another date that will leave my husband thinking that I am a raving beauty....help me out here.

Anyways, the paintings were a little laughable but it was a great time and we may even do it again soon now that we have an idea of what works and what doesn't.  This morning our kids oohed and ahhed at our art work.  They said that we have all the fun.  It's not fair.  And they weren't quite sure who we were trying to paint.  Maybe someday we'll take and art class together :)

Date Night: Backyard Drive in Movie

It was my turn for date night this week and I really was in the mood for something relaxing but fun. I kind of wanted a movie but was also hoping for something a little more special than just sitting in front of the TV.  So, I decided to do a modern version of a drive in movie in our backyard.
The weather was perfect and the sky was full of stars.  It was the perfect night to watch our movie outdoors. During the day I stocked up on movie treats (a movie sized box of Junior Mints and Red Vines)

Then, for added effect (because I like added effect) I used our $10 AMC theatre gift card to buy movie popcorn and drinks while my husband was putting the kids to bed.  I was the only girl at the movie theatre who bought popcorn and a drink and then walked back to her car with it. You may be wondering why we didn't just use this gift card to go to the movies...well, do you know how much it costs to go to the movies these days?  geesh!  It would cost us close to fifty dollars to get two movie tickets, popcorn and drinks, and pay for a babysitter.  That ten dollar card was not going to buy us a date at the movies.  But, it WAS going to get us authentic movie style popcorn and soda in real live theatre cups for our backyard drive in movie!

We set up a little stand in the yard for our laptop and picked a Netflix movie to watch.  Then we created a nice comfy set up of blankets and pillows right there on the grass.  Once we were all cozied up it was show time!  We munched on our movie snacks and had a great time.  It was so much more fun than just watching a movie on the couch.

 After we were done we were already under the stars so we just got to enjoy the night air, the constellations, and for some odd reason the birds that were chirping...night birds?  We will definately do this again.  Try it out...what's on at the drive in in your backyard this weekend?

Date Night: Italian Restaurant at Home

Saturday night it was my husbands turn to plan date night and this time he really delivered!  First off, he made pizza for the kids for dinner and told me that we would be having dinner together after the kids were in bed.  (But he was nice and let me sneak a slice of pizza to hold me over).  Then, while I was putting the kids to bed he got to work setting up his little surprise.

When all the kids were asleep (except one who kept sneaking out to see what we were doing)  he told me that we would be dining at a little italian place for our date.  And, out on our balcony I found this:

Love it!  He had set up a little table (storage drawers with a table cloth over them-you have to be resourceful around here) and two chairs and the italian  menus were on the table.  He even included candlelight for ambiance.

Now, here's the part that really impressed me about the menu:

1.  He had looked up italian terms

 for the food that he prepared and described each item on the menu

with it's italian name.  So, instead of just saying "pizza"

it said "mi piace la pizza" ( it just means I like pizza but it sounded fun)

and then had a fancy description that included a few italian terms.

2.  There was more than one choice on the menu. 

He had pizza and calzones as options for main dishes. 

 He had prepared both because they both use pretty much the same ingredients (pizza dough, sauce, cheese, meat).  Whichever dish I decided to order, he would order the other one.  Nice touch.

I placed my order and he returned shortly with our food and some fancy sodas in glass bottles that looked like something you would get at a little cafe.  (not that I've been to a lot of little italian cafes but I can imagine)

Once dinner was served we just sat in the moonlight with our candles and our sodas and enjoyed dinner together.  No TV blaring, no cell phones, no kids (except that one who snuck out the back door and tried to look at us from the back yard....I knew I shouldn't have let him nap for so long) Ok, after a while he fell asleep and then there were no kids and we just talked like we used to talk when we were dating.  We asked each other what we worry about and what makes us truly happy and what we wish and we were just us.

We don't get to be just us enough and I loved it.  It felt like a real life date.  Like we were the only people in this romantic restaurant late at night.  We could have just sat at our kitchen table and ate pizza but this was SOOOO much better and felt so much more like the old times.  I can't wait until the next time he plans our date night :)

Date Night: Gourmet Cheese Tasting

You may notice that most of our dates revolve around food and that's because....well, we really like food and it just makes us feel happy :)  Anyways, since we rarely have the opportunity to actually go out on a date (you know, where you have a babysitter and you leave the house) we try to have our dates on the weekends at home after the kids go to bed.  And after a while we realized that this at home dating program was resulting in the same date over and over again....A MOVIE. 

Me:(to my husband) "You want to have a date tonight?"

Him: "Yes, that would be great!"

Me: "OK, what could we do?"

LONG PAUSE

Him: "Um, we could watch a movie."

ANOTHER LONG PAUSE

Me: "Uh, OK"

We would then spend 30 minutes searching NetFlix for a good movie and finally just settle on something we weren't that interested in but we thought it would do and that was the date.

So, in search of something better this weekend we DID NOT WATCH A MOVIE!

We had a cheese tasting party and it was so much fun, and so relaxing.

So, if you're looking for something to do this weekend besides watch the screen in your PJ's here is what we did:

After all the kids were in bed we pulled out our gourmet cheeses (Okay, I bought the cheeses at Wal-Mart so some of you might not consider it gourmet. But, I did find some interesting cheeses near the deli and they were new to us.)  We put a white table cloth on the table, arranged our cheese along with some crackers and apples, lit a candle, and turned on some nice music.

Then we proceeded with the cheese tasting.  I had researched the proper cheese tasting techniques earlier in the day and found out some basics like:

1. Always taste starting with the mildest cheese and progressing to the strongest

2. There are certain words and categories that are used to evaluate cheese

I made a cheese tasting sheet along with some instructions that we used.  The most fun part was thinking up words to describe the aroma, taste, and texture of these new flavors.  We used a lot of the words from the evaluation sheet but also added in our own.  My favorites?...."stinky dirty socky" (it really smelled like that but it tasted pretty good) and "macaroni and cheesey" and "velveeta cheese gone bad".  Overall the cheeses were great (except one, bleah!) and the best part about it that we can use them for snacks and meals all week so it was a multipurpose date!

To download the instructions and evaluations sheet click here:

Cheese Tasting Evaluation Sheet and Instructions(PDF)