Maintaining Happily Ever After-After your carriage turns back into a pumpkin

Some days I really feel like Cinderella.

Ummm that would be the one before the whole fairy god mother Bib-a-dee-bob-a-dee-doo magic wand part.

Tattered patched together clothes, mean step children yelling out commands, scrubbing floors until some naughty animal puts paw prints all over them.  My carriage is just a plain old pumpkin (or a mom mobile covered in snacks and toys)  Mice are just rodents and my horse well I don’t have a horse but if I did it would just be a horse.

It is so important to find ways to maintain that “thing” that makes you really love your spouse.  Because otherwise if you don’t and they leave that wet towel hanging on the end of the bed just one more time……your going to choke them!  Not that this happens or anything I am just saying!

So how do we keep “our happily ever after?”  Well you have to date your mate!

“Yes, I know you are busy!”

“Yes I know you have too many kids!”

“Yes I know you are tired!”

“Yes I know you don’t wanna, but you gotta!

These dates are do-able for a busy mom and wife.  I have almost all of these things readily available and they don’t require 3 hours of prep work, or a naughty nurse costume!

1.  You take the cake-Bake 2 cakes or a batch of cupcakes.  Set out frosting, sprinkles, piping bags etc and decorate special cakes for each other.  If you want to bump it up a notch  wear silly party hats and invite him to the date with a birthday party invite or a tub of frosting with a note that says you will need this later. That will get his interest up!

2.  You are Tee-rific- Decorate a tee-shirt for each other to wear on your next date night.  Pick a theme like bowling, love etc.  Have a contest to see who is the best artist. Winner gets a 20 minute massage.

3.  You and I go together like cookies and milk-  Bake cookies together and be sure to have lots of milk to go with it., and maybe some lactaid. (Ha! Trust me there is nothing romantic about lactose intolerance people) If you want to take it up a notch make a special recipe, changing the words for the ingredients with things like love, passion, kisses, hugs.  You might want to keep the real recipe close by in case you forget!

4.  Photo Booth Party- Set up your camera on a tri-pod or a table with a timer.  Make a silly backdrop  (a sheet will work and some fun props like hats, mustaches etc.)  Spend the evening taking silly pictures.  Present your special someone with  DVD of the photos, or have one blown up and put in a frame to remind you of your fun date.

These are a few of my girlfriends we got together to work on our date ideas and put together some super easy photo props.  So much fun to play with!

5.  Book Store Scavenger hunt- Have your significant other meet you at a library or book store and hide secret messages in books and give hints as to where they should go next.  The final spot should be romance novels of course.

6.  Picnic in the park-  Doesn’t get much easier than that!  Pack a simple lunch or dinner

7.  Ice, Ice Baby-Make ice cream together, but no cheating and using a machine on this one.  Make it in a coffee can and spend your night rolling it back and forth and reconnecting.  For recipes and instructions you can go here.

http://www.sendicecream.com/makicecreami1.html

If you have it in your budget get some fun toppings too.

And how about a little mood music!

Ha! and yeah that song is going to be stuck in my head all day.

Don’t judge me it is funny!

8.  Backyard bowling: If you did the tee-rific date now would be a great time to wear your shirt.  Set up a back yard bowling alley complete with bowling alley snacks.  If your kids have a bowling set use that otherwise you can use empty water bottles and any ball that will roll.

9. Let’s be kids again:   Pick up some coloring books and crayons and color together or raid the kids coloring supplies.  If you want to make it extra special make personalized coloring pages.  Go to the park and swing on the swings, blow bubbles, color with sidewalk chalk. A must have is kid snacks think juice box, Capri suns, animal crackers. 

10.  Playing Hard to get :  How about a little hide and seek.  Meet your spouse at a favorite location and use sidewalk chalk to leave a trail to find you. Keep moving just far enough that they can’t catch you but you can see them that is part of the fun.  Use sayings like ha, ha you can’t catch me and hearts of course. Be hard to get but not impossible and don’t forget to make rules like you can’t go past this street or whatever.

You can find my other fun date ideas here: