Remember pre-baby days in your relationship? You’d both get home from work and decide “hey, let’s have a date night tonight!” You could get dressed and be sitting at a table sipping wine and talking about your week in a matter of an hour. At least that’s what most of my husband and I’s date nights looked like before we welcomed our darling daughter in September. Now they take work. Work that sometimes neither of us have the energy or time to put in. Finding someone to watch her, putting on actual clothes (and maybe makeup), figuring out what we want to do (a quick dinner 99.9% of the time), and leaving her behind feels like so much of a hassle!
But it’s not fair to us to not do it. As great as being parents is, we won’t be very good at it if we’re not taking care of ourselves, each other, and our marriage. So this year I decided to take initiative. For Valentine’s Day I put together a year’s worth of monthly date nights, and I managed to venture out of the dinner date box! Our plan is to open the month’s envelope on the first of every month, decide when we want to go, and book a sitter that day. I even put an alert in my phone to remind us to do it on the first. I feel like this is the most fool-proof way to ensure we actually take advantage of some mommy and daddy time every month.
So, if you love this idea, I’ve included the printables I made for each month, as well as the “cover sheet”, and list of twelve dates. I cut out each card, put it in an envelope with the month on it, and put all of them in a large open end envelope with the cover sheet on it.
Click Here to Print Your Date_Night_Kit!
1. January (2016): Time to lace up those super sassy bowling shoes! Hit up All Star Lanes or Circle Bowl, order some nachos, and try not to prove your the worst bowler of all time (I am). You may want to reserve your lane ahead of time.
2. February: Dinner date night. Have your husband pick from the three options, and then pick your favorite restaurant in that category!
3. March: You’ve got two choices this month, you can either actually go to an LSU baseball game (there’s two home weekends, 7 games in total), or you can hit up a sports bar and watch the game on TigerVision. This one is guaranteed to make the hubs happy.
4. April: Hit up Groupon in the beginning of the month and find your favorite restaurant that’s offering, and buy it. Date night and a deal!
5. May: For this date night, you’ll get time with your sweetie AND new artwork for your home! Reserve tickets at Painting with a Twist (there’s a location in Baton Rouge and in Prarieville), and make sure you each bring your favorite drink.
6. June: Did you know that Baton Rouge has a comedy club? I didn’t until I started digging around for these dates. My husband and I love to laugh, so why not let someone make us! Just Jokes Comedy Club has Open Mic night on Tuesday nights at 8, and if you get there before 8 – it’s free!
7. July: Food crawl’s are kind of my husband and I’s favorite thing, so I had to include one for our year of dates. The idea is you pick your favorite restaurant for appetizers, another one for entrees, and a last one for desserts, and you hop to them each for dinner!
8. August: Another either/or choice this month – if there’s a movie showing that you both want to see, go! (the new Avengers comes out this month, which is why this is this month’s date #nerds). OR you can have a movie night in after the kids go to bed. If you decide to stay in, be sure to still be intentional about actually making it happen.
9. September: This month is one of my personal favorites, a good old fashioned show down. Head to Celebration Station for a game triathlon. You can pick the games (we’ll be competing in mini-golf, skee ball, & driving simulators), and best two out of three wins!
10. October: I love the fair. I just do, I can’t help it. So this month’s date is for me. The St. George fair is October 10-11 this year, and this mama & pops are going to be there – eating cotton candy & riding those spinny rides. Yay for acting like kids!
11. November: Did you also know that Baton Rouge has a real deal brewery, and that it offers tours? Yes! Tin Roof Brewery, y’all. My “must know how everything works” husband will love this one.
12. December: Ice skating in December. It’s predictable, but that’s because it’s fantastic. The River Center turns into a skating rink, and we’re going to be all up in there looking like fools.
Happy dating, y’all! (You can get your Date_Night_Kit right here.)
