Michael’s and my favorite thing to do is to spend time with our girls…but our next favorite thing to do is to spend time without them! When we quietly shut the door to Ellie’s room after negotiating her down to reading three books and singing four night-night songs on a Friday night we feel practically giddy. It’s our time to shine… or at least our time to pretend we are childless for a good couple of hours. We LIVE for date night! We have a pretty sweet thing going with my brother and sister-in-law and often swap weekend nights so that we don’t have to pay for babysitting (huge perk of living near family)---but sometimes finding a babysitter just doesn’t work out. I feel severely jipped if a Friday and Saturday night goes by without some quality spouse time, so we have “at home dates” that can be just as fun as going out. I’ve compiled a list of five dates that can be done at home while the babes are sleeping.
Nerdy Things First
Where my Harry Potter peeps at? The other night we sorted Michael into his Hogwarts house via www.pottermore.com. I mean, I’d OBVIOUSLY already been sorted (Hufflepuff!) but Michael needed his chance to put the sorting hat on. He isn’t huge into Harry Potter (I know, it hurts me, too.) but he took the quiz very seriously. It was hilarious how seriously, actually. There was a question about which pet you would choose to bring to Hogwarts and Michael googled every owl it mentioned and spent a good 10 minutes thinking it over. Eventually he was declared a GRYFFINDOR (#overrated) and then we watched our boy Harry find out he was a wizard in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as we ate copious amounts of sour gummy worms and chocolate covered almonds. I highly recommend this completely nerdy and free date night. And maybe later ::wink:: you could even ::wink:: play ::wink wink:: a little bit of Quidditch ::wink:: if you know what I’m sayin’.
Stars and S’mores
Do you have a video baby monitor? Because GET a video baby monitor! We have the V-tech dual camera video monitor and we love being able to spy on both of our little cuties. The display monitor doesn’t have to be plugged in, so we can leave the girls in bed and enjoy time in our back yard. Michael recently purchased a super inexpensive fire pit at Walmart for $30 bucks, and once it isn’t squelching hot outside, boy are we gonna enjoy the heck out of it! Another (mostly free) date in the books. A night of s’more making and enjoying the lack of stars here---deep in the heart of Texas. (Like, what is that song even talking about?! We can’t see any stars down here!) Why are the best conversations always had sitting around a campfire? I don’t know, but I love getting time to really talk to my man. I also love melty chocolate and gooey marshmallow sandwiched between two graham crackers…but uh, yeah, I’m mostly just in it for the conversation.
A Good Ol’ Fashioned Facebook Stalking Session
I realize this doesn’t sound like a very datey date, but boy is it a good time! The gems to be found on Michael’s Facebook page circa 2008. The long hair, what a dream boat.
We have sat for hours stalking old pictures, old boyfriends and girlfriends, and---my favorite—our Facebook message history…where steamy nuggets like this can be found:
Seeing each other’s history and awkward high school pictures always has us sharing otherwise forgotten stories from our past. We like to wonder if we—Miss School Spirit and the long-haired hacky sack kid that would never willingly go to a pep-rally—would have been romantically involved or even friends. It’s fun to role play wonder.
Game Night and Take Out
You don’t be Mormon for this long without knowing how to organize some gaaammmeee nights. (Something about not drinking brings out the game nights in people, I think.) Order in some grub--- and thank you Ubereats for broadening the takeout horizon. (The last time Michael and I got take out, we ordered from a Chinese place that was conveniently close and suspiciously inexpensive. It tasted like feet.)
Split some Jenga blocks between the two of you. Tape a question or a dare on each Jenga piece. Answer the questions and act out the dares as you play. If it gets romantic, so be it. Sometimes that just can't be helped!
Take the 5 Love Languages Test
We love Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages book and test. You can purchase the book off of Amazon or just go take the test here.
I can’t recommend this enough! You can find out which is your dominant love language—quality time, physical touch, words of affirmation, receiving gifts, or acts of service. Michael and I took this test early on in our relationship and I really feel like knowing each other’s love language has helped us to build a strong foundation. And for those of you who care, he’s quality time and I’m all of them. Like, I need every single one constantly. Does that make me needy?
You can’t win if you aren’t speaking the same language, ya know? Take the test, talk about the results, find ways throughout the week to cater to each other’s love language. It’s fun. You can trust me, I’m a Hufflepuff.
As you can see from my list, anything that spurs conversation is a winner in my book. Now go get your date not on!