Dinner at Eight: Sweetheart Date

One of my most favorite blogs I love to read has come up with a great idea! It's called dinner at eight. For all those parents out there who are busy with kids, pets, work, schedules, the never ending routines of the day in and day out....this is a little escape. Why not have a date night....at home, once the kids go to bed, to reconnect with your husband. Each month she'll come up with a theme and any day of the month it's up to you to carry out the plan. This month's theme was "sweetheart!" It just so happened that I already had a pretty big dinner planned for Valentine's day so I took last night as a perfect opportunity for our little date night.

I had all these plans but somehow ran out of time to execute them. I headed to the local store here in town and picked up some lobster tails and NY Strips. I figured while he was outside grilling the steaks I could be inside figuring out what in the HECK to do with these alien looking tails! I then heading to my most favorite store, Trader Joes, and picked up a dozen tulips. Why do I love Trader Joes?? Because 12 tulips only cost me $4.99 and who doesn't LOVE fresh flowers in their home. I'll admit, I did feel a little odd buying myself flowers on Valentine's Day. I figured they probably thought I was either a lady buying flowers for my female lover or a crazy cat lady buying them for myself. Either way, I didn't care.

During my lunch break I headed to the craft store and picked out some scrapbook paper and then cut out these states. I thought it turned out really cute. I put little hearts on the location that Mr. Hubs was born in GA and the spot that I was born in SC. The meaning behind this?? Two souls from two different locations came together in love to form as one. Cheesy, yes. Do I love it, of course!

Eight o'clock. Kids in bed, my pj's on, and dinner cooked. It's time to eat! We enjoy the change. We almost always eat dinner around 8:30 once homework, baths, nighttime routines get finished but 99% okay, 100% of the time it is in front of the TV. Tonight we fixed our plates and actually sat at the table. It was a very lovely change. We talked about summer plans, our yard sale, and how weird the lobster really was.... Yeah, I don't think Mr. Hubs really liked it.......
I had a great time. Dinner finished, I cleaned up and headed into the bedroom to finish reading my book. It was a perfect night and a wonderful dinner. I think this idea is great and I plan on carrying out the "Dinner at Eight" plan each month to remind us to slow down for the moment and take time for ourselves.