Almost all through highschool and most of college I was the regular Saturday night babysitter for my Uncle Tom and Aunt Susan’s 3 girls. Let me reiterate,  Tom and Susan would go out either by themselves or with a couple of friends every Saturday night.  They had a designated time set aside to be together every week.  Back then, it that didn’t seem like a a big deal – just great money for me.  Now, with my own family, I think they were geniuses and I’m jealous.

John and I have always tried to do an intentional date night on the 14th of every month.  We would get a sitter and go do something that usually involved dinner and a movie.  This worked – but there were some drawbacks. First, it got expensive, especially when we had to pay a sitter.  Second, our planning was lacking and we almost always went to dinner and a movie – which I love to do, but it wasn’t a good fit for really connecting.  Third, once a month was not frequent enough.

We switched to doing weekly date nights about 6 months ago inspired by Simply Modern Mom and her Project 52 Date nights series.  You can check out her parameters here. Ours go something like this:

• Friday Nights from 8:30-10:00…although we are usually never really done before 11pm.  But with the intention of an hour and a half blocked time, makes it seem more doable.
• We usually do something at home unless we have a party or something, then we make sure to grab dinner together beforehand.
• Right now, I do most of the planning, John is still apprehensive to the planning part or we would be alternating the planning. He is warming up to the idea of planning, but I have fun with it so I really don’t mind.
• Like SMM, we try and keep it simple .
• Movies are not an option.

So, what do we DO right?!?!  Here some of our past dates…

• We’ve dusted off several games (not the Hi Ho Cherry-O variety) that usually only get played once a year.  One of favorites is Phase 10 – we are addicted!  Another night we played Skip Bo Deluxe, which we have never played, it was still in it’s wrapper – but it was really fun.
• A couple of weeks ago, we got slurpees and played Wii Sports.
• One night I surprised John with a Spa Night all for him and let it be known he LOVED it.  Complete with a pedicure, facial and massage.  BTW, I’m the best wife ever.  FYI, Walgreens has single use face masks for $1, so I didn’t have to spend $8 on something I would never use again.
• Last Friday, we made root beer floats and I got a bunch of travel guides from the library about Nova Scotia.  A little nerdy, but we’d love to plan a trip there for our 10 year and I just thought it would be fun – and it was.

In summary, Friday nights have become such a sweet intentional time for John and I.  It solved the drawbacks about how we used to do date nights and it’s been really fun getting creative about what we are going to do.

For more ideas, check out Project:52 Date Nights at Simply Modern Mom and be sure to check out the post comments too.

John asked me last week if he could order a gift for Emma… he asked because I’m doing our finances right now.   I didn’t ask what it was, but I honestly assumed it was going to be some gadget, maybe a Princess Lea something, a Woot T-Shirt, something along those lines.

I was totally surprised when we received this sweet little package from humbleBea.com .  It included two onesies, one short sleeve one and one long sleeve, a matching flower pin and these super sweet little booties.   I love love love the colors and those booties – I could eat them they are so sweet.  All from Daddy – Emma is SO lucky to have John as a Dad.

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Happy Daddy’s Day John!

The boys are SO lucky to have you as a Dad!  We love you so much!

My husband John is the most amazing man I know.  He’s 32 today, always a year younger than me, and I wanted to celebrate him in this post by listing 32 things that I adore about him.

1:  He is SO thoughtful.  I really fall short in the thoughtfulness department, especially in our marriage.  If he is getting “a treat” at the store, he always picks up my favorite too.

2:  He is very generous with his time.

3:  He has a great sense of style.  I know this sounds crazy, but ask him his opinion, you’ll see.

4:  If he knows I’m interested in something, he’ll be interested in it too.  For example, I went to a purse party and asked him to look on the company’s website before I left to see what he thought of the bags.  He looked and pointed out a few, but we couldn’t pick one I loved.   At the party, I was undecided.  And without me calling him first, he texted me, “Check out the Charlotte (the style), it’ll be perfect.”  he was still looking for me even after I went to the party.  What guy does that?!?!

5:  He has amazing taste in women.

6:  He knows how to fix stuff.  From water heaters to Transformers to cars to gadgets.  And if he doesn’t know how to fix it right away, he’ll learn how or point you in the right direction.

7:  He understands and appreciates the fine art of teasing.  This is a big deal to me. I can’t really explain it.  But I like to be able to laugh at myself, and teasing allows us to not take ourselves so seriously.

8: He goes clothes shopping with me.  He brings me different sizes and some that “you should just try”.  He shows me the freedom of looking beyond the sale racks.

9: He is a good friend.  If a friend is in need, he does whatever he can to help out.

10: He rubs my feet whenever I ask.

11:  Every night when John comes home, the boys run to the door when they see his car and try to lock him out of the house.  They will be pushing with all their might from the inside, in turn, he will be pushing with “all of his might” from the outside.  All the while saying “Oh no! I can’t get into the house, how will I ever get into the house?” He eventually get in and they all hug and love on each other. This happens every night.  The boys think it is a riot and I am giggling just thinking about it.

12: He takes my ideas seriously.

13: He takes me seriously.  When I was suffering from chronic nightmares about zombies (i love zombie movies), he made the nightmares go away.  He came up with a plan.  He told me, when the zombies came, and he was still at work (which always happened), I would take the boys and the animals and drive to our friend JP’s house in Sullivan, MO.  John would meet us there.  He reassured me how perfect this plan was because, Sullivan was in the country and zombies migrate towards the city to feed.  JP has lots of guns and we would be safe.  And that was all it took, no more bad zombie dreams.

14:  He lets me know when I am being too serious.

15:  He knows my limits and picks up up the slack, most of the time without me asking.

16:  He exercises humility regularly.  When he is wrong, or if he is unsure he’ll admit it.

19:  He’s practical.

20:  He is a patient teacher.  He has taught me how to do a lot and is very patient when I don’t catch on right away(which is always). He is also like this with the boys- they are going to learn a ton from their Daddy.

21:  He’ll watch chick flicks with me.

22:  He gives great advice.

23:  He tells me when I am being crazy, in a nice way.

24:  He loves his mom and his sisters very well.

25:  He has alot of forethought.  He’ll be going to Walmart for something for him, and without me prompting, bring home some new socks for the boys because he noticed them getting holey.

26:  Henry said, “I like it when Daddy wrestles with me.”

27:  He is a great kisser.

28:  JJ said” That he plays Lego Star Wars with me and he lets me buy guys.”

29:  He knows so much stuff.  This can drive me crazy, but sometime it comes in handy.

30: He makes sure I have time for myself and time with my friends.

31: He makes me laugh like no one else does.

32: He loves me unconditionally and very well.