Date Night

Peter & I started having a specific date night each week when we first got married. We had heard it was really important to have a date night when you have kids and are busy and for us, we knew we wanted to make our marriage a priority in all seasons of our lives and spending time together consistently is a way we felt that would assist in this. So, we implemented date night when it would be easiest...without kids and with an open schedule and when we really wanted to spend time with each other :)

The day of the week has varied over the years depending on when small group is and when we have a babysitter but we have continued to have a weekly date night for over 5 years now. With 2 little ones, we have to thank my parents for their faithful and sacrificial time in allowing us to continue on with date night. The girls love their special time with Grandmom and Granddad and we love our time together. We are pretty unoriginal in that we often just go out to eat....(and if we don't have a babysitter we order in food and watch a movie) The heart of the date night though is to connect and spend time together as a couple and to talk. I consider it a blessing to have a husband committed to date night as well as family that sees the value of it (Peter's mom doesn't call on nights when she knows it is date night).

Sometimes though I (or Peter) come up with a creative or different idea for date night. A couple weeks ago we went to a local free outdoor concert...we called up Trish & Nate and they joined us on their way home from work. It was a Beetles cover-band. The music was fun, the company fantastic, but the mosquitos were awful (according to Nate & Peter.)

 double daters - Trish & Nate

Nate is quite creative & handy....his mosquito "repellent" was to wear the bags for their chairs on his legs :)