Hotel Suite at Home

Sometimes you want to have a relaxing night away but don't want to spend the money on a hotel. Or maybe you have kids and don't have someone to watch them overnight. Both of those issues are ones that my hubby and I were dealing with. So... I decided that I would turn our bedroom into a hotel suite for the night! It turned out to be fun and special!

The key to this date is to find ways to change your regular old bedroom into a fancy hotel suite. Do activities that are out of the norm and things you would do if you were on a vacation night away from home. Here is what we did...

I decorated our room and had some sparkling cider, chocolates, and a welcome letter for us when we entered. I left my hubby out of the loop and so it was fun to see his surprise when we walked in.

We began the evening by sipping our sparkling cider and enjoying chocolate while we chatted. Next, we went to a "spa". I had a basket prepared with everything we needed to for spa treatments. We gave each other facials and foot/back massages. 

After our trip to the "spa", we chose one of the movies that I had set out to watch. I can count the number of times we have watched a movie in bed at home on two fingers, so this was out of the norm for us. At hotels we love to watch TV or movies in bed so it definitely reminded us of that. 

The next morning we enjoyed a continental breakfast in bed. I prepared the tray before the date started the night before so the next morning all I had to do was go downstairs and bring it up. If you have kids I would recommend getting up before them so that you can enjoy your breakfast with your spouse without little hands banging on the door :) 

Overall, both my hubby and I felt like this date fed our desire to stay in a hotel suite! We didn't even have to spend any money or get a babysitter... BONUS!! 

Would you accept this rose?

Confession... I love watching The Bachelor/Bachelorette! I began watching it about 5 or 6 seasons ago and got hooked. Since my husband is sweet enough to watch it with me, a couple of weeks ago we hosted a "Bachelorette" double date. It turned out to be really fun! My sister-in-law and her husband are fans as well and so we invited them to join us. We did this date for the season premiere but it could obviously be done for any episode! Also, if your significant other isn't interested in the major chick flick type of TV shows, then do it with group of friends!

First, in order to ask my hubby on the date, I sent him this text...

That night, before our guests arrived, we decorated our table with roses, rose petals, and candles.

Once our guests arrived, I gave each person their very own "rose" (marshmallow roses)! Chocolate roses would be great too. We also poured ourselves Sparkling Cider in our glasses.

As we snuggled with our hubbies and watched the episode we played a game! We each had a paper that listed all of the guys that would be on the episode. Knowing that six of them would "go home" at the end of that episode, we each made notes next to each name during the episode and then chose the 6 that we thought would be going home. I must mention that I won this game by guessing 3 out of the 6 correctly! ;) 

This date took a regular "watch TV at home" night and turned it into a fun double date! We want to do this date again when the season finale rolls around. It was a hit! 

20 Summer Date Ideas

Warm weather,  flip flops, swimming, fresh cut watermelon, roasted hot dogs, green grass. I love everything about summertime! I especially love summer dates! There are so many options once the weather warms up. My hubby and I have started talking about what dates we want to do during these next warm months. Here are 20 simple summer date ideas...

1. Fly kites
2. Go swimming (in a pool, lake, pond, ocean, wherever!)
3. Get ice cream and take a walk together
4. Have a picnic in the park
5. Go hiking
6. Have a water fight
7. Have an art competition with sidewalk chalk
8. Go to a farmers market
9. Go "sight-seeing" in nature and come home with souvenirs (a favorite rock/leaf you found etc.)
10. Make hot cocoa and go stargazing
11. Watch the sunrise from on top of your car
12. Play field games or night games with a group
13. Go tree climbing
14. Go fishing. I like this fishing pole 
15. Read a book together in the shade of a tree
16. Play tennis or golf together
17. Find somewhere outdoors neither of you have been and take pictures
18. Snuggle up at a drive in movie
19. Go garage sale hopping to see who can find the most unique/odd item for sale
20. Roast hotdogs and marshmallows over a bonfire

I get excited just writing these! I can't wait for summer dates with my man. Good luck with your summer dates!

Photo Credit

Anniversary! Relive your wedding day!

Celebrating a wedding anniversary can be one of the most special occasions of the year! This month, my husband and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. That's a milestone, right?! Marriage is something that needs to be nurtured and rekindled. What we did on our anniversary this year did just that! On the day of our anniversary we "relived" our wedding day! Confused? Well I'll tell ya how we did it!

At 10:00 am, the time that we got married five years earlier, we were in the place that we got married! We got married in the LDS Temple in Rexburg, ID so we spent the morning there!

Picture from here 

Next, because we had mexican food at our wedding luncheon, we went out to a Mexican restaurant!

That evening, I sent my hubby to get cupcakes from the exact place that catered the cupcakes at our wedding reception. While he was gone, I pulled together as many decorations as possible to take our minds back five years. I set out my wedding dress, some flowers from our wedding, and our wedding invitation.

Once my hubby got back, we ate our desert, looked at our wedding pictures and watched out wedding video footage. You could also listen to any wedding music you have and have a "first dance" to the song you danced to on your wedding day! You can continue to "relive" what you did after your reception as well (wink, wink).

This whole anniversary date idea can be a special way to rekindle your love. It was so much fun to think back to that special day and celebrate with my hubby. Just like we did on that exact day years earlier!

Rexburg Dates!

My blog was recently featured in the local newspaper (The Rexburg Standard Journal). I was super excited! Since then, a local business has requested that I put together a list of date ideas specific to the Rexburg area. I LOVE requests, so here it goes! Here are some ideas for my Rexburg readers!

- Stop by the amazing Cocoa Lodge and order one of their many different flavors of hot cocoa (they recently moved locations to 70 South 200 West across the street from Great Scotts). My favorite flavor is their peanut butter cup hot cocoa. Take your yummy drink with you as you take a walk around Porter Park with your date!
- Exercise together! Play tennis, go running/walking, shoot some hoops, or whatever. End your heart pounding activity by sharing a yummy Jamba Juice smoothie! Their "Apple n' Greens" smoothie is my favorite!
- Go to Scoops! This can be a fun date all by itself. Besides their many different flavors of ice cream at only $1 per scoop, they have a ping pong and Foosball table! The atmosphere is a fun and relaxed one!
- Snuggle up and watch the sunrise together! It's currently rising around 7:15 am. Afterwards, head over to Great Harvest Bread Co. on main street for some yummy breakfast! I love their cinnamon burst bread.
- One of our favorite local places to eat for date night is Gringos Mexican Restaurant! Their prices are very reasonable and their chips and salsa are to die for! You can then walk across the street to the Paramount theater to snuggle in front of the big screen.
- Since it's warming up outside, pack a lunch and head over to the Nature Park by the fairgrounds. Don't forget extra bread so that you can feed the ducks! They also have a pretty walking path that you can enjoy together.

Rexburg locals, take advantage of our local businesses during your date nights! I have only mentioned a few of many options!

Photo Credit

The Good Old Days

We all have a little bit of "kid" in us right? I know that I am definitely a child at heart sometimes! The date that my husband and I did last week helped to foster that silly side of us. We had a "childhood date" to relive the good old days. It turned out to be really fun!

First, I made an invitation for him and gave it to him the day before the date. I've included a printable for you to access and print out at home. Click here for the invitation printable.

The date started out by us making a huge blanket fort in our family room. And yes, we built ours around our couch so that we didn't have to sit on the floor. We aren't as spry as we were when we were 10 years old ;)

Here is the beauty itself! We were pretty proud ;) This picture was taken from the back.

After the fort was built, we sat inside and watched an animated movie that we had not seen ("Flushed Away") while we ate some of our favorite treats from our childhoods.

You could also start out the date by having a kid-like dinner (macaroni and cheese, pizza etc.) before you watch the movie as well! 

It was so much fun doing things together that we used to love to do when we were kids. We spent the night laughing and being silly. What's better than that?! 

Indoor Beach Party

When I gave my husband this date gift, our date for January was an Indoor Beach Party Date. Last week we did it and had a blast! It is wintery and cold outside so spending the evening at the "beach" was really fun.

First, the decorations. I actually just went to the dollar store and put on my creative cap to find things that I could put a beach spin on (there was even sand in the craft section)! Other than that, decorations included a sun cut from a yellow poster board, swimsuits hanging on the wall, beach towels on the couch, and a picnic basket and ice bucket for the food and drinks. Oh yeah, and we wore our swimming suits and flip flops!

To set a beach-like mood, I had "On The Beach" playing on our TV. It was a movie type thing I found on Amazon Prime (it might be on Netflix or online too) that shows 10 minute clips of different beaches around the world. There is not music or anything, just the natural sounds of the beach! It was beautiful!

I had all of the above prepared before my husband got home. He loved it when he walked in!

For the food, we grilled hamburgers, and had chips, fruit salad and root beer on the side. Food that we would have taken to a real beach! We sat on our beach towels and ate.

For our activities, we made "sandcastles" (out of brown sugar), played beach volleyball (using a balloon), and played darts (mainly just because we have a dart board and love playing it together). It was so much fun laughing and playing together!

Now THAT is a look of concentration haha!

14 Days of Valentines

Valentines Day is one of my FAVORITE holidays. Expressing love should be done on a daily basis, but hey, how fun is it that we have a holiday that prompts us to show extra love and gives us an excuse to have some fun?! This year, I am going to do the "14 Days of Valentines" for my husband! Each day, I will surprise him with either an activity that we will do together or a little gift. I have already planned what I'm going to do for him each day so that I could share my ideas with you before February 1st (when the 14 days begin).

Whether you do the "14 days of Valentines" or not, make sure that you do something special with the one you love this Valentines Day! It doesn't have to be extravagant or expensive to be special. A few ideas could be...

- Have a fancier-than-normal homemade meal by candlelight at home (we like to add rose petals and sparkling cider when we do this!)

- Make a play list on your computer of your favorite love songs and slow dance in your living room (or a romantic outdoor location if it's not too cold)

- Do a "progressive dinner". Order an appetizer from one restaurant, an entrée at a different restaurant, and dessert at another.

- Get a hotel night in your own or a nearby town (We did this for Valentine's day once and had a blast!)

- Write love letters to each other and then exchange. 

- If it is snowy out, build a snowman by moonlight. End with hot cocoa with heart shaped homemade marshmallows in it.

- Add a Valentine's twist to an easy meal like pancakes, pizza, or pasta with these ideas.

As for the 14 days of Valentines, here they are!!

#1- Make a Valentine's craft together! I'm thinking of doing this one...

#2- Make a Valentines dessert together

#3- Leave different love quotes/notes where he will see them throughout the day (in his lunch, in his car etc.)

#4- "Heart attack" the bathroom mirror with things you love about him. 

Picture from Valentine's Day 2013

#5- Write love notes to each other using candy hearts for key words.

2013

2013

#6- Go to Tagxedo.com and make a FREE word art picture to give him.

This is the one I made for my hubby this year! 

#7- Surprise him with a back massage

#8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!!!! 

12 Dates for 12 Months

Sometimes the hardest part of going on dates is figuring out what to do! There have been many times my husband and I have asked each other "What should we do tonight" with the answer being "I don't know." My Christmas present to my husband this past year helped with this scenario! I came up with a date package idea that would give us dates for a year! The date package included 12 dates for 12 months (1 date per month). Each date was pre-planned and pre-paid! This makes it so each month, we have a date that is already planned and paid for so that we can easily have a fun date night together. Here are the pictures of the package I made (with some explanations beneath some of them)...

The front (I bought the folder thing from Walmart)

In each tab, there was a DATE CARD and the needed money/gift certificates for that month

Some months (like this one) only included a DATE CARD because there was not money or gift certificates needed for that particular date.

As you can see, I glued paper onto scrapbook paper and added stickers to make the Date Cards 

I looked up the exact price of two admissions and included the exact amount

Invitation inspiration from here 

I got this invitation printable from here 

This idea (and the explanation) came from here

Game printable from here

You are welcome to use any of these separate date ideas or the whole 12 Dates for 12 Months idea! Depending on how much money you are wanting to spend in making this gift, you could do more or less dates that don't include money/gift certificates. I know my husband is super excited to start cashing in these dates each month. And so am I!