Category Archives: Marriage & Family

Date night (in house as usual)

Posted on by Mika
3

It is Friday evening, “date night” in our household.

My 5 year old son approached me as I am choosing a channel on SKY TV to watch upstairs with hubby.

5 year old son: Mummy? Are you going to watch a movie with your “hoooney”?

Me: (a bit taken a back by him referring to his daddy by my nickname) aahh, yes

5 year old son: awwwwwww!! I want tooooo!

Happy dating everyone!

(Hubby and I are trying a bunch of sweets we don’t usually get: Milk Duds (man, these are chewy! me likes), Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme, Reese’s and Quake Bars. Gotta love our local ethnic store for carrying all these brands that you usually can’t get at our supermarket!)

After post:

My friend asked me how we have date nights with kids….so here is my answer:

We try and get the kids in bed and then start our date. So in our case, our oldest children go to bed at 8.30pm. If your kids go to bed earlier, there is no reason why you couldn’t start earlier. In the past we have also worked around waking babies etc. We sometimes watch a DVD we rented, or something on TV, or play a game, or just talk. It isn’t fancy. It isn’t so much what you do (if you make it too orchestrated, you maybe less inclined to keep it up every week), what I think is the key is that you both have an agreement that on Friday night (or whatever day it is) you will commit to coming together after the kids go to bed and do something fun together. We also try and have a nice dessert (or in tonight’s case a junk food feast) to make the night a bit more different from the other week days.

Now that the kids are getting older, we tell them we are having a date, and that it is important for mummy and daddy to have this special time together (this is to try and encourage them not to come out of their room and ask us a thousand questions before they go to sleep….some nights are more successful than others). Hope that helps. But with everything we do, it is pretty flexible, we have had things come up on a Friday every now and then that postpones our date. We sometimes leave the house for our date (!).  Sometimes we have let the older kids stay up a bit later on a Friday and we start our date and put them to bed later. So, find what works for you.

 Let me know if you have any other questions!

Inspirational Quote: Feeling accepted, Priceless

Posted on by Mika
1

I was reading Small Notebooks, and Rachel’s hubby/partner Doug, was asked: “What do guys want for Valentine’s Day?”.

In his answer he talked about how one Valentine’s day was particularly memorable because he remembered feeling accepted:

“It helps a man feel accepted when he knows that the things he has already done are more important than the things he has not done yet.

A guy likes it when a woman acts like she has everything she wants when she has him.”

Awwww…gush material!!

Feeling accepted is a priceless gift, it is so important not only with our husbands, but with our children as well.

When I was pregnant I actually thought I looked pretty good. It wasn’t until after I had the baby and I would look back on photos of me pregnant that I realise how huge I was! My hubby would make lovely comments all though my pregnancy, that made me feel beautiful….he made me feel accepted.

I know I will be thinking a bit more about how I can show the ones I love that I accept them, and love them for them.

A suprise for our 10 year anniversary

Posted on by Mika
5

Last Friday, I surprised my hubby for our 10 year anniversary. I had worked on a secret project the past week *hush hush*

Hubby took half a day off work on Friday. After meeting him in town, I played him a video message from the kids. They said, “Hi Daddy! You are going to Christchurch! Byeeeee!”

I had his bag all packed and we went straight to the airport. (My dad said that they closed the airport due to fog not long after we took off! Lucky!)

Highlights from our trip:

Things I loved:

  • The video montage my hubby made for me of photos of us and the kids over the last 10 years and my lovely rose
  • Riding the tram around Christchurch, listening to the friendly tram drivers
  • The funny busker at Cathedral Square
  • The beautiful architecture of Christchurch Cathedral
  • The lovely hotel and helpful staff
  • The scary gondola trip up to the Restaurant (it was raining and windy, and although it warms you that the gondola stops often, it is freaky when it actually does)

  • The amazing food at the Pinnacle Restaurant
  • The delicious breakfast buffet (one of my favourite things about staying at a hotel!)
  • The beautiful views on our visit to Arthurs Pass
  • The cheeky Kea’s that tried to eat our windshield wipers at Arthurs Pass
  • Landing after a bumpy ride into Wellington

Once we got back into Wellington we went to the movies and had our favourite butter chicken for dinner. So spoilt!

Then after all that, I got a chill and spent the rest of the night wrapped up in layers of clothes and blankets! (24 hours later I was all better! phew!)

It wouldn’t have been possible without the babysitters: Aunty Dee & Obaachan…thank you! And thanks to my dad for being our driver to the airport (as well as secret keeper and photographer at airport).

Fun Kids Activity: Christmas Bingo

Posted on by Mika
1

Christmas Bingo is a simple game that can be pulled together relatively easily and cheaply. The great thing about bingo is that it is a game that can be enjoyed by little children, as well as big adults!

Our family was assigned to run a game at our friend’s Family Home Evening that we were invited to. After surfing the internet, I came across crayola’s site with this great bingo game!

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/search.cfm?txt_search=christmas

If you want to be tricky and make a larger bingo playing card, follow these steps:

1. I printed all the 5 playing cards onto white paper.

2. Then I cut out the bingo portion of the page.

3. I worked out the right percentage to enlarge the bingo game to the width of the paper. (If you have a copy function on your multifunction printer, click on 100%, then I clicked on Zoom, then I increased the percentage to around 122% – I have a preview function on my Canon MP520, which was helpful to see how big the enlargement was going to be.)

4. Then I copied the enlarged version onto red and green cardboard paper. (Obviously you can use any coloured card. I copied each playing card more than once, as we had over 10 people playing the game.)

5. I also copied one more enlarged version of the bingo game onto some white card and cut it out to make the “calling cards”.

If you want to use this game again, I would recommend laminating it. For counters you can use cut up bits of cardboard. In our family we use a variety of “gems” as counters that we have collected over the years.

The winner received a mini candy cane :)

Date night Friday (and usually Saturday night too)

Posted on by Mika
2

Hubby and I have date night on Friday night, and lately on Saturday too. Like most of you, we don’t let hiring a babysitter get in the way of us having a date. Tonight my hubby came across a video online about some of the brain myths out there.

This is what Dr John Medina who is the director of The Brain Center for Applied Learning Reserach at Seattle Pacific University had to say.

“Brain Myth: If I just teach my kid French and German and calculas before the age of 4 they are going to grow up to be really really smart…..if I make this intellectual hot house they are going to be really smart.

You know what the single greatest predictor of academic success is?

It’s the emotional stability of the home!

So you want to get your kid into Harvard? Go home and love your husband!”

Photo by Brian OrionThe Kiss

Happy dating everyone!

I *heart* my hubby

Posted on by Mika
1

My hubby has been taking such good care of me while I’ve been sick.

He’s looked after the kids so I can get some rest. He’s been bringing me fruit and water. He cooked yummy dinners for us. He made a delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies, which he delivered to me in bed with a nice cold glass of milk.

awwwww…..I love my hubby!