” Kids spell love T-I-M-E.” (John Crudele}

My husband and I have been wanting to plan regular one-on-one dates with the girls for a while now. We love doing things as a family, but having some “just me and you” time is really special, too.

With that in mind, we decided to give the girls a Year of Dates for Christmas this year – an envelope for each month, with a special surprise date inside.

We brainstormed date ideas and came up with a variety of fun activities. Some are outings, while some are doing projects at home. We also tried to keep them fairly inexpensive.

My dates with the girls will be:

• Shop for and cook a recipe of your choice.
• Choose a craft or sewing project for us to do together.
• Go to the bookstore for a new book and a treat.
• Go out to dinner at a restaurant of your choice.
• Go shopping for a new outfit.
• Kid’s choice!

The dates with Dad will be:

• Do a woodworking project together.
• Go on a nature hike.
• Go out to breakfast at a restaurant of your choice.
• Have a movie night – at home or at the theater.
• Go bowling or miniature golfing.
• Kid’s choice!

We made two sets of coupons and divided them up into envelopes for each month. The girls will get to open their envelope at the beginning of the month to find out their surprise date! They will alternate having one-on-one dates with mom or dad.

I’m pretty happy to be giving the girls the gift of our time and attention – this is definitely one of those gifts that keeps on giving.

We can’t wait to give them their coupons – I hope they are as excited as we are! I’m thinking we should make a little scrapbook of our dates for the whole year – wouldn’t that be fun?

Update: Download and print our Parent & Child Date Coupons! I added 2 pages of blank coupons to the download so you can create your own dates, too. Enjoy!

Are you giving any experience-type gifts this year? Do you think your kids would enjoy a Year of Dates?

Happy December! I hope your month is off to a great start. We are watching the wind blow like crazy today. I have a feeling our trees are going to be quite bare by the end of the day!

We’ve made it to our final play inspiration download of the year. I hope you and your kids have enjoyed having a few go-to play ideas at your fingertips each month.

December’s play ideas include simple outings, weather watching, shadow play, and more. Enjoy!

Download 10 Ways to Play in December.

You can download the past months’ idea sheets here.

Happy playing!

Happy Monday! I’m over at Make and Takes today sharing a fun Busy Bingo game to print and play. We’re bringing ours along to play with cousins on Thanksgiving. This bingo game includes some movement, some talking, and some hunting. Fun!

Head over to Make and Takes to print a Busy Bingo game for your kiddos!

Happy playing!