One of the perks of waiting a bit longer to have children has been the great wealth of knowledge we seen lived out in the lives of some very insightful and proactive parents.
Even as I write this, I can't quite remember which couple we learned this from, but I know that shortly after Sammy turned 3, we began implementing parent and child date nights.
We try to do a date with each child once a month. So one time, I'll do something with Sammy while Brad takes Caleb on an adventure. Then a few weeks later, I'll go out with Caleb while Sammy and Brad spend a couple hours together.
We have seen some great benefits from doing this and it's been so much fun seeing each of their personalities shine when the other one is not around.
About a month ago, our church hosted a Father/Daughter Extravaganza. Sammy talked about it for weeks. She had a countdown on her calendar. She dragged Brad to the Father/Daughter Extravaganza booth the first Sunday they were selling tickets.
She was just a wee bit excited.
Brad and Sammy had an amazing time!
They did sled racing.
Which, by the way, Brad and Sammy are going to enter in the next winter Olympics. Brad said Sammy was leaning into each turn...and held on no matter what.
That's my girl!
They also did some minnow racing.
And, how does one race minnows, you may be asking?
Well, you grab a scared and exhausted little minnow (via your plastic cup) from a bucket and pour him into a rain gutter. Then you use your plastic cup to "encourage" the little guy to swim down to the end.
Ummmm.....
Yup, that's exactly what I thought!
Then they made pizzas. Notice that Sammy brought her apron and hat. This child packed her "cooking attire" 3 days before the extravaganza since she knew they were going to be making homemade pizzas.
Again, just a wee bit excited.
One of the final games was "chubby bunnies." If you've never played this game....don't!
I think it should be illegal in most states.
Pretty sure Sammy thought Brad was the coolest for shoving that many marshmallows in his mouth!
So Caleb, hearing nothing for weeks from his sister except how wonderful her date was going to be with daddy, began to ask me what we were going to do on our date.
They learn fast, don't they!
Not wanting to be outdone, our date included pizza. But it was the pick-up kind, so that I could still feed Hannah at home.
After our yummy pizza, we played play-do...for like an hour. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of that. But I specifically remember making lots and lots and lots of little balls.
Then Caleb requested that we make cookies. The kind that you "cut out."
Of all my cut-outs, Caleb decided to make Christmas trees....in March?
Okay...
We mixed up some yummy dough.
He rolled it out.
Not too shabby for a 3 1/2 year old!
And between the batches, he would make a huge ball and form it into crazy shapes.
I wish I knew what was going on in that little mind of his!
We all had a great evening!
Even Hannah...who, as the 3rd child, spent most of the evening playing on the floor with cookie cut-outs.
Don't worry Hannah, some day you'll get to go "minnow racing" with daddy too!
3 comments:
I love Hannah's two bottom teeth! Omri still only has one!
How wonderful & special! I wish Dick & I had done this with our boys. I never heard of it when we were raising our kids; I mean a date time with each child by themselves. Child don't care how much we know, but how much we care! Time & attention spent with them is priceless! They will never forget it! Kids need our love, time, fun, as well as training & discipline. Keep it up!
By the way, who's idea was it to have this event at church? Did you know that Dick played chubby bunnies at our church years ago in a couples, adult group we were in? Dick won, too!! His prize was a blue chubby bunny!! Like father, like son! You all sure manage to have fun & find things to do in cold, snowy Minnesota!
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