Kid Dates #4

This time around we decided that each kid would get one date with one parent, only because we knew we wouldn't have time for 2 each.

Rome and Jeff played sports again. This is Rome's favorite thing to do and his ONLY request. I convinced Jeff to take the Flip along this time.

Capri and I went to Weston, she's been asking to go back for months since we first went. There is an awesome Celtic store there with a fairy room in the back. Capri is utterly in love with this store. We had no idea beforehand, but when we go there people were lining up on main street. Turned out to be the local high school's homecoming parade. Bonus!





Sable and Jeff went to Zona Rosa and walked around. They "smelled all the flowers", went to Gymboree to get some of their awesome bubbles and then to Coldstone. No pics, but imagine a very happy baby with a tint of blue around her mouth.

Kid Dates Numero Tres

A few weeks ago we did another round of kid's dates, and again they were grand successes and big hits with the kiddos. I've said this before but I'd highly recommend doing these with your kids. It's a amazing how much they love to be one-on-one, and how much of their true personality you get to see.

1. Jeff and Rome played sports together, they left the house with a bag filled with balls, bat and frisbee. This is by far Rome's favorite thing to do with his Daddy.

2. Rome and I went to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal, (we go to McDonald's a LOT but Happy Meals are a special treat) and play as much air hockey as we could fit in our time there. Rome could play air hockey all day every day. Sable REALLY wanted to go, and Rome being the nice guy he is let her tag along.

3. Capri and Jeff went to the movie "Hotel For Dogs". She's been planning on "going to the movies for my next kid date with Daddy" for quite a while.

4. Capri and I went to the Quilt exhibit at the Toy and Miniature Museum. These were doll and miniature quilts made mainly by children. So amazing and inspiring. We of course had to check out Mar-Mar's marbles as well. Jeff's Mom is called "The Marble Lady" as she and her husband have the nation's largest marble collection. A couple years ago they donated the bulk of it to the museum which built a whole wing to house it along with a huge collection of their marble games. Because of their donation the whole family has a lifetime membership to the museum, sweet eh?

Kid Dates Part Deux

Another successful round of kid dates, 1/2 a few weeks ago and the other 1/2 yesterday and today - though no pictures this time.

Imagine if you will. . .

1. Aby & Rome date: Rome's choice, Chuck E Cheese. Noise, chaos, french fries, soda, games, rides and a smile from ear to ear on Rome's face the entire time. TONS o tickets = Rome gets a mini rocket shooter, a soft ball and some candy. There is little better in this world to Rome than rocket shooters.

2. Jeff & Capri date: Capri's choice, lunch at On the Border. Capri LOVES to go to lunch or dinner with Daddy, or really anybody for that matter. All our kids L-O-V-E to eat out. We have apparently trained them well.

3. Aby & Capri date: She didn't get to choose but I knew she really wanted to go get ice cream at Cold Stone. So we made it a "shopping" date followed by ice cream. The Salvation Army was having a 75% off sale for all the clothes, so we hit that. Capri was HILARIOUS while we looked through all the racks. She kept picking out the ugliest things - ok so MOST of the clothes there are the UGLIEST things - and then saying "this is for you Mom, HA HA HA HA!" or "This is for Gramma, HA, HA, HA, HA!" I nearly bought one of the shirts she picked out for Gramma and was going to MAKE her wear it when we come to visit. You lucked out big time Mom!

4. Jeff & Rome date: Rome's choice. . . Chuck E Cheese. Shocked? Well don't be. It's pretty much his favorite place on earth. I'm sure the experience was pretty much like the date with me - except this time he came home with a tiny dinosaur and a couple of candies. Needless to say, Mommy is WAAAAY better at winning tickets than Daddy.

Kid Dates

A few weeks ago Jeff suddenly decided that we really needed to start going out on "kid dates" with. . .well, the kids. Meaning we each would take each kid out by ourselves. I thought this was a very mature and parenty thing to do so on Jeff's next days off we did it.

Kid Dates, Day One:
1. Jeff took Rome to play sports at a local field. They headed out with a soccar ball, frisbee, bat and ball. They came back SWEATY and happy.

2. I took Capri to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I let her take the lead and we went on a 4 year old art tour, meaning we saw pretty much EVERYTHING in the musuem, not stopping to look at anything for more than 2 seconds. This wasn't because she didn't like it, in fact she LOVED it. But she's 4 and 2 seconds was all she needed to appreciate each piece. There were a few things that were so totally gorgeous to her that she had to stop and look for a few extra seconds. The first was this tea set:

The next was this room:

And then she found it, her most FAVORITE thing in the entire museum. This painting literally stopped her in her tracks, made her clutch her heart and say, "Ohhhh Mommy! This is the most beautiful painting I have ever seen!"
It's a Georgia O'Keefe, and it's so totally, completely, perfectly Capri.


Kid Dates, Day Two:
1. Jeff took Capri out to lunch at On The Border, one of her favorite restuarants. She came home all smiles with a strawberry lemonade in hand. Capri has had a crush on her Daddy (and now so does Sable big time) pretty much since she was born, so it was very special for her to go out just with him.

2. I took Rome to see Kung Fu Panda. We both LOVED it. Seriously, it is a really cute movie and made me laugh out loud. Especially the end, "Ska-doosh".

Kid dates, Day Three:
Rome and Capri went to Juliette Frost's birthday (thank you Emily!!) which gave Jeff and I a chance to take Sable out on our own. Sable loves to eat so that's what we did. Sometimes it's easy to think that babies don't notice things, but they so do. Sable was fully aware that her brother and sister weren't around and that she had us to herself. It was all smiles through her mouthful of pasta at Bravo!.

Conclusion:
Do it. Take your kids on kid dates. Don't make excuses, just go. It's something they and YOU will never forget. We'll surely be doing it again soon.