WINTER DATE IDEAS

It's that time of the year again, the temps are starting to drop, people are docking their boats and putting up their bathing suits until next year, and pulling out their sweaters, leggings and boots.

 I am beyond ready for some cozy nights at home with my husband and our fire place.

Here are some fun winter date ideas that y'all can do this year!

ONE | Drive around and look at Christmas lights

TWO | Take pictures at a Christmas tree farm

THREE | Go shopping for an angle tree child or fill a shoebox.

FOUR | Have a progressive dinner in your town.

FIVE | Pull out the air mattress or sleeping bags and have a sleepover in front of the fireplace 

SIX | Go on a hike

SEVEN | Make dinner together at home - this cookbook is perfect

EIGHT | Go to a local Christmas play

NINE | Go get hot chocolate and walk around your town square

TEN | Decorate Christmas cookies

ELEVEN | Have another couple over and build gingerbread houses and have soup night - this soup is incredible!

TWELVE | Set up the self timer and take a couple of Christmas pictures in front of your Christmas tree

THIRTEEN | Go to a few football games and grab hot chocolate while you're there to warm up

FOURTEEN | Have a cheesy Christmas movie marathon and make these

FIFTEEN | DIY your tacky Christmas sweaters

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WINTER DATE IDEAS

DIY BACKYARD DRIVE IN DATE

Now that it's starting to warm up and summer is getting closer I wanted to share one of my older, but most viewed blog posts I have ever written. Back in May of 2013 Matthew and I celebrated our three year dating anniversary. I love celebrating and I love surprises so I decided to surprise Matthew with a homemade drive in at my parents house.

You can read the whole post here, but I'm going to share some of my favorite images from that post now!

The whole set up!

I made a concession stand for us by using an old desk we had growing up and stocked it with some drive in treats.

I also made some "tickets" for the movie and handed them to him when he got there. So cheesy, but it made it even more exciting ;)

I borrowed my dad's truck and stuff the back with a small twin mattress, pillows and blankets to make it extra comfy!

And here is our DIY screen!

Watching our movie

I shared all about how we made the screen in this post, and here are a few pictures from that post!

My dad working on the screen.

By far one of my many favorite memories with Matthew and I was actually able to pull of a surprise without him knowing anything! We had perfect weather and enjoyed the movie together celebrating our 3 year anniversary! I would love to do this again, but I don't think our backyard is fit for something like this right now lol. Maybe one day we'll be able to pull this off again!

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DIY BACKYARD DRIVE IN DATE

Short week = fun week

Matthew has been working on a project that was a pretty big deal. He worked on it most of last week and all weekend also while working on two other big projects. All of them were due this past Monday. Poor thing has been hit hard with school work right here at the very end. He graduates in 17 days y'all, 17 days! I had asked Matthew a couple of weeks ago that if he was able to finish his project in time if he would like to help me decorate my apartment for Christmas. I may or may not have told him that I would make sausage balls, too. So he definitely agreed ;)   Sunday night he told me if he finishes his project in time then he wants to go see the new Hunger Game movie. Date night on a Monday night? I'LL TAKE IT! He finished early Monday afternoon and we were able to make the 4:30 showing of Mocking Jay part 1. We only go to the movies between 4:00-5:30 since the tickets are cheaper ;) We really just can't justify paying full price lol. We had planned on coming back to my apartment and making the sausage balls but we realized we wouldn't be able to eat until later because it's a pretty long movie + we still had to make them. So we went to Sam's after. Most people would probably think that we are crazy for going to Sam's on our date night but we honestly love their pizza and love that it's so cheap. AND it is right by the movie theater ;)   We got back to my apartment and I started decorating. I mentioned to Matthew that I wish I had a fireplace in my apartment (I have probably said that a thousand times since I moved out lol). One of the things I really miss about living at home is my fireplace and mantel!! I love having the fire going when it's cold outside and I love decorating the mantel, I just grew up with one so it's weird not having it. I love the look of it, the sound of it and obviously the heat it puts off. Well, I was digging decorations out of a box and started hearing the sound of a fire. I turned around and saw this on my TV. Matthew found some option on my TV that has a fake fire. It seriously sounds like a fire and every couple of minutes "someone" adds more logs to keep it going. I may have teared up a little bit lol. He is SO thoughtful!

 I don't have many decorations nor do I want to buy any so I usually just work with what I have for now. It's plenty for my little one bedroom apartment :)

I bought this 6ft tree last year on sale at Target and love it.

A lot of my decorations are from my parents and my mema. They buy new decorations and I get the old decorations. Really, it's a win-win situation in my book ;)

 

 Here's my living room! Please ignore the ugly stepper by the couch. It's the only place it will fit in my apt lol. I am wanting to make something to add to that closet door and I need to find my tree skirt at home and bring it back up with me.

My end tables are decorated with all things from the Target dollar section from last year.

It was cheap, small and perfect for my apartment :)

and yes, I know that picture is sideways, I have to print out a new one to put in there. That one is working for now though lol.

Last night Matthew had a guys night with his dad and brother. They went to a hockey game in Nashville. From what I heard it was a pretty good game! I stayed in Cookeville because I have to work today. So I did what any girl would do. I had some ME time. It was great.

After I got off work yesterday I went to TJ Maxx and found my Christmas cards and a cute sweater to wear for Thanksgiving. After that I headed to my apt for the night. I got into the most comfiest clothes and cleaned a little, made dinner and caught up on my show. I absolutely LOVE the show Revenge but haven't been able to watch any of this season. One of my friends let me borrow her Hulu account so I could catch up on it. So from about 5:00 yesterday afternoon to about 11:30 last night I watched Revenge. I caught up and finally know what's going on!

While I watched Revenge I worked on my Christmas cards!! I always wait until the last minute to send them out and then they get there late so I am determined to get them sent out on December 1st this year!

At 3:30 today I am homeward bound! So so excited to be home until Sunday. We get Thursday and Friday off and I am so grateful for that.

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Short week = fun week

Monday night date night

I wanted to celebrate Matthew passing the first part of this CPA exam but I didn't want to go overboard since it was just the first test and he has 3 more to go. So I decided we would have a date night in last night and go out when he passes his last test at the end of the summer. He grilled the burgers and then later we celebrated with ice cream sundaes! It had rained most of the day yesterday but when the burgers were done it had finally stopped and it was an overcast afternoon. It felt great outside and we had a lot of fun!

The rain held off the rest of the night, even though we were under a severe thunderstorm warning most of the night, ha!

My patio table came with an umbrella but in the afternoon the sun sets on the front side of my apartment so I haven't had to use it yet. The hole in the middle of the table bothers me though lol.   Monday's aren't all that bad when it's date night ;)

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Monday night date night

Backyard Drive In...DATE NIGHT

Well now that you know what Matthew did to surprise me for our three years, I will share with you today what I did to surprise him (mine was no where near as amazing as his, ha!) Matthew loves going to the drive in, I remember him telling me stories of when he used to go with his youth group all the time in the summer after church on Sunday nights and he actually surprised me and took me to my very first drive in last summer and I just LOVED it!! Here are some pictures from our Drive In

Gotta have the candy goods ;)

I used an old school desk for our concession stand and had it stocked with all our favorite snacks!

Used our initials to create this little sign...and it rhymed. Score.

and of course I made these cute lil tickets to hand him when he pulled up

My dad let me borrow his truck for the night and I just threw a bunch of pillows back there and borrowed my sisters small mattress, so the bed of the truck wouldn't hurt our backs, so very comfy!

May 29, 2010...the best day

He was definitely surprised and I would say he enjoyed it!

It was so much fun! After it got dark the weather was perfect and the movie was great :)

Our view until it was dark enough to start the movie...not so bad!

Right before we started the movie...almost dark enough!!

What we used for the screen? Two long pieces of wood and a king size sheet from Wal-Mart. Seriously SO easy to make and it worked better than I could have hoped for!

Perfect :)

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Backyard Drive In...DATE NIGHT

{16 inexpensive summer date night ideas}

It is finally summer and you know what that means...Matthew is home for three whole months (only this time he won't be going back to Cookeville alone!!!! I will be moving in with two girls and attending Tech this fall! F I N A L L Y) Anyways now that it is finally summer and we are back in the same area code for longer than 3 days we will be spending more time together and going on dates :) Sadly these days dates can be rather expensive, like $40 for a dinner and movie. For college students or even newlyweds that can be a little too much. So I am going to share with you today some inexpensive but still fun date ideas you can do with your man! Who knows you might end up liking these ideas better than the  usual dinner & a movie date!

1. Themed movie nights Pick a movie you already have or run to your local Redbox (if you are going to do Redbox, LOOK UP PROMO CODES) and pick a movie you can do a themed date night.  Ex: The Tourist - You can make your man an invite for the date, maybe an admit one ticket on a map. Or the two main characters meet on a train so you could make a train ticket and leave for him to find. -If you and your man have traveled before then put out some pictures from y'all's trip. -You can begin the date by being "tourist" of your town, cheesy? Maybe but you might actually learn some pretty cool things about where you live (& most of it's free) - Since they are American tourist you can have American food for dinner (grill hamburgers and have fries) - Angelina's character travels around a lot in the movie so pick a place she goes and make a dessert from there. Ex: Crepes  -End the date night watching the movie Ex: The Holiday -Climb up in the attic and get out 1 or 2 Christmas decorations (wreath, small Santa, Christmas lights) -Get some hot chocolate packets and put one on a small box & wrap it up and leave for him to find and leave a little note in there with hints on it for what to expect for the night. -Make sure to drink the hot chocolate at the point in the movie that Cameron & Jude do with his girls...make sure you each have 5 marshmallows ;) -For dinner fix a few of your favorite dishes you have around Christmas (Sausage balls, Casseroles, Cheesecake) -Put up the Christmas lights in the room you are going to watch the movie  -End the night snuggled up under the blanket under the Christmas lights watching the movie with your man

2. Recreate your 1st date Do you remember what you did on your first date, what your wore or where you went? If it wasn't too long ago where the same outfit, have your man pick you up (or walk out the door and act like he is coming to pick you up). Did you hold hands? Did he open the door for you? If your went to dinner & a movie then go pick up dinner at the same place & go rent the movie and head back home & watch it. Do it all again just like the first time!!
3. Arcade games Remember when you were younger and skee ball was the stuff? Get about $10 in quarters and head to the local arcade and play all of your favorite games Are you or your man competitive? Make it a challenge and whoever wins the most games buys ice cream after!

4. Bonfire Do you have a backyard that you can have a bonfire or one of those fire pits? Run to the store and get Marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers to make s'mores! and since we are still have a few cool nights, bring a quilt and bundle up by the fire.

5. Cooking date Do you and your man like to cook? Hop on Pinterest and both of your pick something to make, pick something you have never made before. Let him pick the main dish and you pick dessert and swap the next time. both of you make out the list of things you need and head to the store.  Want to make it a challenge again? Both of you get your own basket and whoever gets all their ingredients and makes  it to the front of the store first wins.

6. Mini Golf or Go karts In our town we have a place called Go USA fun park They have mini golf, go karts, an arcade, batting cages and a driving range Just because they have all these things doesn't mean you have to do all of them in one night. If your local place has all of these that is great but only pick one for each time, not only is it cheaper but you will get more fun dates out of one place.

7. Drive In movie This has to be one of my FAVORITE things to do in the summer. I actually went to my first drive in movie last summer...crazy I know! It was so much fun and it's SO much cheaper than going to a regular theater.  So pack your car down with some treats and a few cokes and grab some chairs or quilts and head to your local drive in. They usually do 2 movies for the price of one.

8. Living room fort Remember when you were a kid and you and your siblings or bff's built forts in your living room and watched movies out of it? Well be a kid again for the night. Grab all the extra sheets and blankets you can and build a fort in your living room with you man. If you have some extra Christmas lights put them in and around the fort. Make a homemade pizza and eat in the fort while watching a movie. Any guys reading this? Surprise your girl by doing this and I can promise you that you will win boyfriend of the year & melt her heart all over again.

9. Game night Pick out your favorite board games that you have and go play out on the back deck one night. Stay up late playing 2 or 3 games, make it a challenge and whoever wins has to make the milkshakes.

10. Workout Trying to lose a few pounds or just stay in shape? Go rent some workout videos, get your cute workout clothes on, throw your hair up and get to moving! Rent a few different ones like cardio or yoga (try not to laugh watching your man try to do yoga)

11. Go to the park Do you live close to a park where you can go walking or ride your bikes? We live close to the greenway and I LOVE going there to ride bikes or just to go on a walk.  We get so caught up talking that we don't even realize we have walked a few miles. Take a Frisbee or if you have gloves and a softball take it and throw back and forth.

12. Eno date If you have an Eno or even just a regular hammock that you can fold up and take on the go then take them to the local park or even your backyard and just hang out (see what I did there, eh?) It's the perfect way to relax and to just catch up on your day .

13. Nerf gun night If you have more than one then you could have a little Nerf gun war. Only have one? That's fine too. Just sit up little targets on a shelf or the mantel and see who can knock down the most. Start out close to the targets and then back and around to make it more difficult to hit the targets.

14. YouTube watching Grab your lap top and cozy up on the couch together and just watch funny YouTube videos. Matthew and I love to watch funny videos and laugh until I cry. There is actually this couple that pull pranks on each other all the time and they are absolutely HILARIOUS. Just search on YouTube 'Couple pranks Jesse and Jeana"  They have a ton of videos so just watch all of theirs and you will be set for the night
15. Window shopping Do you have an outside mall? We have one called the Avenue and we love it. Leave your wallets in the car (hidden of course) and go from store to store and just look at the different things they have to offer. You could even try on clothes and see what you like and what sizes you'll need for later purchases.  I personally love going to Target and picking out furniture and home decor for our future apartment/house (we aren't even engaged yet and I am already planning on how to decorate our home haha) It's actually fun and you can find out when the stores you like will be having sales and when the sales happen you will already know what you want and what size!
16. Restaurant at home  One of my favorite surprises I have ever done for Matthew was in our second summer together. All I told him was to get dressed up and be ready by a certain time. I had ran by O'Charleys and picked up two steak dinners and then I had decorated the back patio. I blind folded him and gave him untrue hints to throw him off on where we were going. It was so funny listening to him ask about 50 questions. I took off the blind fold and this is what he saw...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well there are 16 different ideas that I love doing or that I am excited about doing this summer with my man!! When it comes to date nights you just have to be creative and really think about it so you don't end up doing the same things over and over. Some of these might not interest you or you might not want to do them and that is completely okay, just use that creative mind of yours and think of something you and your man would both enjoy!  Do you have any ideas or dates that you are planning on doing with your man this summer? Please share I would love to hear about them!! 

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{16 inexpensive summer date night ideas}