In House Valentine's Date

Sometimes going on a date is just too expensive! With 5 kids, we pay our babysitter $7/hour which is more than the norm. But they deserve it - watching 5 kids is not an easy job. So, we do a lot of dates at home. Yesterday was one of those days especially since our main babysitter is on vacation! I thought I would share with you what we did so maybe it will help you to be creative with your in-house dates. First off, we made sure the kids were in bed for 7:30 - earlier than usual. The boys stayed awake until 9 but only came out a couple of times. The girls stayed in bed. After the kids are in bed, Jay always has to go check on the chickens (thousands of them) so that is a half-hour event. While he was gone, I quickly got a few things ready. When he came home, he was not allowed to enter the house until he radioed me on the walkie-talkies to make sure I was ready. He was to go straight downstairs to a candle-lit bath waiting for him, along with chocolate-dipped strawberries and a pretty drink. He had to stay in the bath for at least 30 minutes so I could cook the food for our candle-lit supper. While he was bathing, I cooked up some great Thai food to go along with the theme date I discovered on this website while incorporating my own ideas as well. Once he found me in the candlelit bedroom, we ate some great food, drank some 'bubbly', talked, played some cribbage (a game he loves!) and fell in love with each other all over again! After all, isn't that the point of a date, whether it be Valentine's Day or not? We cannot always go out but if we use our creativity, maybe do a little on-line research for some ideas, and try our best to make each other feel special, in-house dates can be just as fun! I hope you had a great Valentine's Day, whether you were able to get out or not!