So, we continued the tradition of going on dates with our kids in February to celebrate the "month of love". They really look forward to it - talking about all their plans for where they want to go and what they want to do. After reigning in all their ideas of us taking them to Hawaii and all, we love going on the dates with them too!
Zachary and Scott went to the see The Lego Movie the day it came out in the theater. Zachary says his favorite part was getting popcorn and an icee! They had a great time together. They both really liked the movie.
Ava and I went on our date as soon as we woke up on a Saturday morning. We used our coupon for a free breakfast at Chick-fil-A and then went to the mall because Ava decided she wanted to get her ears pierced!
So cute in glasses.
We (me, Brielle, Scott) had been telling Ava all about how it would feel to get her ears pierced. I guess we didn't warn her enough. She was super brave and felt ready. She climbed in the seat and sat down no problem. She handled the first ear well enough. But looked terrified when the lady moved to the second. As soon as she was done, I could tell Ava thought it hurt BAD and was about to cry, but trying to hold it in. I asked her if it hurt and she started crying and nodding her head. Poor thing. She was trying to be brave, but it really did hurt. She was fine after a few minutes though and got to choose some cute earrings for when these can come out.
Ava and I came home to get her off to a birthday party and pick up Brielle for her date. Brielle was funny this year. She is growing up! She wanted to go shopping and to lunch. Sweet! Our dates aren't supposed to cost that much, so real shopping was out of the question. She didn't want to go grocery shopping. So, I suggested we use her gift card to Toys R' Us from her birthday to go shopping there. Sold. We had a great time looking at all the fun toys and coming home with even more "Frozen" paraphernalia.
She chose In-n-Out for her lunch and I was definitely down with that idea. She is proud of the fact that she can now eat a whole hamburger all by herself.
The dates continued on the next weekend. Ava and Scott decided to go mini golfing. I knew she would love this. Ava seems to be a pro at anything she does. They had a fun time hitting the ball through the mini golf course, but the big story came at the end. They got to that hole at the end where you are returning your ball. It's usually hard to hit in. Scott missed it, but Ava made it!!! They said bells and lights started ringing and blinking. Ava won a few free rides at the rest of the park.
And lucky Ava got our kid's favorite for dinner, Noodles & Co. mac n' cheese.
(I'm seeing a lot of unhealthy, fast food eating reoccurring in this post. No wonder I've gained 5 pounds.) It was Zachary's turn for a mommy son date. This kid wanted to do it all - bowling, no ride the train, no mini golfing, no . . . He was killing me. We decided first to eat lunch. We had another coupon for Iceberg, so we split a meal and a shake. He was plenty happy with that. What was funny though was the feeling that I was out with Scott. Zach first chose to sit at the counter. Then he saw a big screen TV on with the same college basketball game going on that dad was watching at home. He had us pick up all of our food and move to another table so he could stare up at the game instead of into his loving mother's eyes.
After lots of discussion about where to go and what to do, the kid was happy to go to the mall and ride the little train that goes around the mall and ride the carousel. We got in our own little blue train car and the lady closed the door. Just then Zachary started laughing and said, "He he he, I just tooted. He he he, and it stinks!" He thought he was hilarious. Such a boy. Off to the carousel, out in the wide open air.
The candy store to choose three candies to take home! Spoiled.
Brielle has had ice skating lessons the past two months. Scott took her to her last class and then they stayed after for the public skating hours to ice skate together for their date. Brielle has gotten quite good on the ice. And here is something you might not know about Scott, he is an angel on the ice. It has surprised our friends to see how gracefully he glides along and how fast he can go. They both had a good time.
And finished it at Wendy's eating frosty's in front of the fire. How nice.
This really is something that I'm so glad we started. I think it's especially important in a family with a number of kids like ours to have some good one on one time spent talking and having fun together. The kids feel very special and important to us. Brielle gets to talk all she wants (which is non stop), without being told to give someone else a turn. And we find out again just how much we really do like each of our kids. We love them even more after this time together.
