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Monday, August 13, 2012

A Time for Dates

This weekend was spent dating. Every month Dave or I take each kiddo out on a date (on their birthday date for easy remembering). It is a big deal. Dave missed his dates last month, and I missed mine this past week. The kiddos have not let us forget. So this weekend was set aside for makeups.

Our dates were full of:
* breakfast out
* wandering Old Town Alexandria
* waiting patiently while mama perused the yarn store
* picking out a special color yarn for a shawl all ones own
* spotting a sign for chicken noodle soup and heading in for a bit of lunch
* taking the metro
* hitting all the cancel buttons on the vending machines hoping for a bit of money to be returned
* walking through downtown D.C.
* talking about art at the National Gallery
* bemoaning one's shoe choice
* wondering about nudes and period attitudes toward the human body
* marveling at the beauty of impressionism and noticing all the seemingly random brushstrokes
* discovering the beauty of all those random bites and how they contribute to the whole masterpiece
* deciding a little art can go a long way
* walking home with bits of treasure, holding hands, skipping and talking
* movie watching
* candy store
* trips on the metro and getting turned around
* finding our way
* returning renewed with that feeling of being so very special in the midst of this bigger whole.

7 comments:

  1. sounds like a perfect weekend "date" to me!! ( Hubby has a meeting in DC in October---I'm hoping I can find some wonderful wanderings like yours while he's "meeting"--just wish we were bringing along our grandkids---kids make wandering so much more fun!)

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  2. what a great way to spend the day. :)

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  3. Anonymous10:56 AM

    love that y'all do this too! around their birthday each kid gets a mama date - a meal out and something fun and photos. and then each month i take the girls and mr. takes the boys for breakfast or something then we switch and i get the boys, he gets the girls. lots of fun!

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  4. I like your idea of once a month dates with each child. This might help me remember to do it without too much time passing. Fun!

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  5. this is such a great tradition. i used to manage taking each boy out by himself every other month but we’ve slacked off as they’ve gotten older. the younger son just pointed out it’s been awhile since we had a mom-son day. :)

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  6. I love that the kids make sure you stick to your dates!
    Sounds fantastic to me, :)

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  7. What a lovely idea this is Heather.

    Your dates sound full of fun and interesting things. They reminded me of days that I spent with my parents..shopping days with mum or with my dad going to our little old wooden boat and helping him do odd jobs on it. Then taking me for a lemonade in a pub garden by the water, walking home hand-in-hand reminiscing about his childhood.

    As one of four girls I so enjoyed that one-to-one quality time. I'll never forget those precious times and I'm sure that your children will cherish their date day memories too.
    Deb


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