Project Date Night '16: June

Welcome to this month's installment of Project Date Night... 'How to do a Drive in Movie at Home'...

Our original plan for June's date night was to attend a drive in classic movie at a farm in our area. But, the event was canceled last minute, so we just did our own 'drive in' instead.

yep, we looked this good... 

First thing you need.... a location...

We had already hired a babysitter, so we actually left home this time, but you could really do this anywhere (like your garage, back porch, backyard, driveway). We parked our car in the Walmart parking lot!

Then you need... technology...

If you're DIY-ing a drive in movie, you need a way to play the actual movie. We used M's laptop computer, but you could just as easily use a tablet or phone.  For a more authentic experience, you could use a projector with your computer and project your movie onto your garage/house siding, garage door, etc. Hang up a light colored sheet if necessary!!

Don't forget... the movie!
Borrow a DVD, stream Netflix, re-watch something from your own collection, or rent a movie from Redbox (ideally, wait for a coupon code!).  We rented The Finest Hours, which we enjoyed. Not a lot of movies about the Coast Guard out there, but this is a good one! Check out the Parental Guide here.

Get Comfy
Bring pillows and blankets to make your surroundings comfy. If you're outdoors, you may want to consider bug spray! We brought a couple of blankets and my big body pillow. Since we were hanging out in a parking lot inside the car, we just flopped the back seats down and propped up the body pillow against the hatchback. Even better, wear your lounge pants, hoodie and slippers!

Bring Munchies!
Movies are always better with popcorn! I made Doritos popcorn and cinnamon glazed popcorn (I left out the nuts). I thought about making fiesta taco popcorn, but ran out of kernels.

To sip, I made a cold brewed Jamaica hibiscus iced tea. YUM. I love hibiscus tea!!!

All in all, we had a good time.  It was a different twist on a movie date. Somehow, taking things outside brings in an element of fun and makes the date more enjoyable than just crashing on the couch together.  Give it a try!!!  It also makes a fun group date with other couples. :)

Total Cost:  $26.50 ($25 for the babysitter and $1.50 for the movie.  Next time, we'll just plan to do the drive in here in our driveway and skip the babysitter - still have the battery operated baby monitor! - which will make the date significantly less expensive.)

Project Date Night: December

Since December is such a busy month, we decided to go simple with our date night this month.

M was able to get some discounted movie ticket vouchers from his employer to use at any movie. Hmmm.... choices, choices. We decided to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, and we loved it!

Funny side note, if you're not into crowds, try going to a movie on a Sunday afternoon. There were about 15 people in the entire theater and we were the youngest ones there.

This was one of our more expensive dates, since we had to get a babysitter.  We joke that we do dinner and a movie - dinner for the babysitter and the movie for us. We don't have a whole lot of teenager approved food at our house, so we get some form of takeout for her when she's here as part of her babysitting deal.

Mockingjay Part 2 received average reviews from the critics, but I loved it.  You can't have a series without wrapping up all the loose ends, and that's what Part 2 is about.  (Not) shockingly enough, my favorite part of the whole movie is that last few minutes, where Katniss finally gets her happy ending. I've been waiting 4 movies for closure and finally... bittersweet, yes. But closure all the same

You can read the synopsis and watch the trailer here.

We've come through an entire year of Project Date Night and I feel it's been a success. I hope our dates this year have in some small way been an inspiration to you and your relationships.

Project Date Night: May

I'll keep this short and sweet.  We've been having some beautiful weather here. The kind that just begs you to come outside and play. So play we did.

Our Project Date Night for the month of May actually took place in the afternoon.  Guess what? We actually got a sitter and went out for a few hours while Ry Guy was napping.  (Hurray!!!!)

Oh yeah, and we played a round of mini golf too. It was such a nice afternoon, the family fun park was pretty busy, but we didn't mind waiting at each mini golf hole.

I found out I'm as bad at mini golf as I remember.  Yikes. Good thing it was all in fun. Final score was totally embarrassing, so I'll spare you the details. Let's just say M won.

All's fair in love and mini golf, right?  Read more about Project Date Night here.

Western Theme Date Night

The lovebirds at the rodeo!

Last week, it was M's turn to plan date night.  He did a hum-dinger of a job, too!

We began our evening with dinner at Logan's Roadhouse.  Nothing like a good steak to get me in a Fan-tas-tic mood. :)

Side note: did you know that Logan's has a "health nut" section of their menu?  Each of the menu choices in that section are guaranteed to be 550 calories or less.  I did the math on my calorie counter at home and found out my meal only cost me 520.

I had a 6 oz sirloin steak (grilled to perfection, I might add), a baked sweet potato (plain, not butter or toppings) and steamed broccoli.  A...maze...ing...

I did splurge a little and have a roll and some peanuts.  And 3 glasses of water.  With my lemon. And M's lemon.  And half of M's water while waiting for my refill...

What can I say? I was just a little thirsty. (I hadn't had nearly enough water that day!)

(Clockwise from left) 1. Invocation / 2. Calf Roping / 3. Clown! / 4. Team Roping

Anyway!  After that, we drove out to the Equestrian Center for the FFA rodeo.  I'm not a huge fan of bull riding, but they had several other events as well.  I personally like the barrel racing the best.

It was also fun to see all the Western wear.  Not to be out done by the 'good ole boy' uniform (scruffy jeans, work boots, a t-shirt and camouflage baseball cap).  We definitely felt like we were in the real south.

Get it here!

To finish our date, we snuggled on the couch and watched a Western flick on Netflix instant play.  It was a John Wayne movie I'd never actually seen before (that's pretty amazing. I thought for sure I'd seen them all by now) - "In Old California".  It was quite a switch to see the Duke playing a polished Boston chemist instead of his usual rough and ready gunslinger (although there's plenty of those in this movie as well). I really enjoyed it!

Western Themed Date Night:
Dinner: $11.00 (we had a gift card that covered the rest of the bill)
Rodeo: $20.00
Movie: Free
Total cost: $31.00

Try this one at home - if you're not into rodeo, you could always go horseback riding, or line dancing.  Or, if you leave near a ranch, check with them to see if they host live entertainment.  There's an "Opry" near us that would have been fun to visit.

And instead of eating out, try grilling out on your patio or back porch... I definitely recommend beef though. For some reason, it just sets the mood.

Would love to hear about your version of a Western themed date night, if you decide to do one - we will have to do this one again, it was a lot of fun!

Date Night: Fire + Ice Theme

I came across a cute ice themed date night idea here.  I was inspired to tweak the idea and make it a "Fire and Ice" theme for us.  It turned out well and we had a good time!

I printed off some clues (word puzzles) onto 4x6 cards - I gave M a card before each part of our date and he had to solve the puzzle before we went on.  The puzzles were really simple, just some clip art that stood for each word, so he solved them really quickly.  Except for the last puzzle... he had a hard time figuring out what "ice cubes + old lady in glasses + movie reel" meant.  So finally, I just let him open up the Netflix envelope and see what movie it was (Ice Age).

Part 1:  Dinner
The most important part! :-)  We started our date off at Firehouse Subs.  Yum!

I had a grilled veggie sub and an Honest Tea.  M had the Smokehouse Beef and Cheddar Brisket and Salt+Vinegar chips.  Hit the spot, I'm telling you.