"Play" Date Night...

I decided a long time ago that when Ben got to a certain age, I would start taking him out on dates. I wanted to teach him all the important things about going out with a girl...like holding the door open, pulling out her chair, letting the waiter take her order first, ect. ect. But most imporantly...I knew it would be fun and a great time for him and I to bond. So, last Saturday night, Ben and I had our first night out (Ben refused to call it a 'Date' so 'Play Date' night was born).

I told Ben he could plan anything he wanted to do for our date, which thrilled him. His wheels were turning for days trying to figure out the perfect plan.

Last summer we rode bikes and walked at the high school track which is adjacent to the tennis courts. We would see people playing all the time and Ben got the tennis bug. We ended up getting him a racket for his birthday in April but we hadn't had a chance to go (how do you play tennis with your 7 year-old and watch a 3 and 1 year old at the same time? UGH)! So, our first stop on play date night was the tennis courts. We ended up playing for about an hour and half and really having a good time. In fact, Ben liked it so much he said he would love to take lessons.

Our next stop was the 'Chip Store' (this is what our family calls the local mexican restaurant in town). Ben loves the salt with a little bit of chips and salsa on the side ;) We sat and talked while we ate our dinner and then we started to play a little game. We were asking eachother random questions (how many fingers am I holding up under the table, ect) while we used the ketchup bottle and salt shaker as game pieces on our make-shift game board, aka...the table. Right in the middle of our game, one of the waitresses came over and grabbed the ketchep bottle off our table (I'm assuming to fill it up or give it to another customer since we were done with our meal). We both turned our heads and followed her with our eyes as she took off with our game piece. After the shock wore off, we looked back at eachother and couldn't help but giggle. It took us some time to regain our composure because we both thought it was a bust a gut moment!

(Ben and the infamous red ketchep bottle in the corner of the pic.)

After dinner we made our way to the local grocery store to pick up treats. Nutter Butters were the cookie of choice for my little man. We grabbed them and headed home to get ourselves ready for a game night in the trailer. Ben decided on chess, checkers and cards (war) for our games. We played by the light of our flashlights while we listened to the wind howl outside our trailer. It was really windy that night and on more than one occasion, Ben got a little scared and asked if someone was outside. I was spooked too brave and told him it was just the wind. By 11:30 we were finished playing games so we snuggled in to our sleeping bags and Ben started to tell stories while my eyes started to droop. I think our night ended as our eyes finally closed around midnight.

This was a great start to our "Play" Date nights and goes down as one of my favorite dates ever.

I love you, little man.