Date 133 - I Will Never Leaf You.

Date: Sunday, October 19, 2014
Type: At-Home, Theme, Season
Cost: $
Planned By: Dani

It is 100% fall in Northeast Ohio. I can tell by looking in my own leaf covered back yard. As much as I love fall and the pretty colors.. owning a house in the fall means chores.

So to attempt to making cleaning our yard fun I planned a Leaf date. First, we raked and blowed all the leaves in to a large/curvy pile. I was stuck with the rake because Adam knows how to use the leaf blower better than me.

When we FINALLY had most of the leaves all together we tried to play in them. This would have been the fun part of the date if they hadn't been super wet and dirty. We threw leaves in the air, jumped a little and rolled around. It was still way better than raking and taking them out to the curb.

When we decided we did enough work for the day we went inside. For the next part of the date we made a leafy snack - Kale Chips. I had high hopes for these while making them and baking them. They smelled a lot like Party Pretzels. When they were done baking they let me down. Still smelling like our favorite snack we quickly grabbed some leaves and took a bite. They weren't horrible, but they weren't great. I probably won't ever make them again, but if you are a green loving person go ahead and try them. I would recommend making sure they are extra crunchy before eating though.

Overall, this date was kind of crappy. I am not a fan of cleaning up leaves, but the smell of fall outside was a nice plus. The Kale Chips left a lot to be desired. The good thing about this date was we spent time together and got a chore done - so all in all glad we did it. 

Date 132 - Beer & Bobcats.

Beer

Date: Friday, October 10, 2014
Type: Out on the Town
Cost: $
Planned By: Adam

Every year in October Cleveland has a week long event all about beer - Cleveland Beer Week! The last two years (you can see the details here and here) Adam and I went to the Collaboration Kick Off. We decided to go again because we enjoyed it the previous years. This time we went to the Tremont location. It was nice trying out some new bars, but we both preferred the downtown version (less busy & bigger bars). We did learn from the last two years that one ticket is enough.. except this year they actually had small sample glasses instead of the normal sized glasses they used downtown. We aren't sure if it is because Tremont follows the rules and Downtown doesn't or if the committee for Beer Week changed it. We may never know.

I do have to say that this years beers were better than last years. The collaboration was much better, and I kind of wish we had had two tickets. I'm sure we will go again next year, but probably back downtown.

Bobcats

Date: Saturday, October 11, 2014
Type: Theme, Friends
Cost: $$
Planned By: Lauren

OU homecoming was October 11th. A bunch of our college friends agreed against going to Athens this year for the festivities, because we are getting a little old to sleep on wood floors and wake up at 5AM for drinks. So this year, when Lauren moved to Lakewood, we decided to have Homecoming Housewarming party at her new place! We all enjoyed mimosas, pizza, streaming the game, listening to the 110, making Pawpurrs Black Outs and even had some Jackie O's beer. We all had a lot of fun like we always do when we're all together.

We were all sad about missing homecoming, but one of the best parts of being at OU is being with your friends. Since we were all there celebrating our wonderful alma mater it was almost the same (minus a 3.5 hour drive for us - yay Cleveland!). 

Date 131 - I Love You Monstrously!

Date: Saturday, October 4, 2014

Type: Disney, At-Home

Cost: $

Planned By: Dani

This is our second installment of the DNA Disney Dates (we were a little busy the last couple months). For this date we chose Monsters University because we really liked Monster's Inc and hadn't seen the new prequel yet. We rented the movie from Redbox and watched in our family room. It was adorable! I liked it almost as much as the original - but I was really missing Boo. How Sully and Mike became friends is not what I expected so I really enjoyed the story. 

I found a drink recipe fit for monsters. It was a mix of Monster Energy Drink, Rose's blue raspberry mix and watermelon vodka. It was pretty good, although it could have used less Monster. Recipe: 1 shot watermelon vodka, 2 parts Rose's blue raspberry mix, fill with monster.

For our last monster activity we made little 2x4 monster's for Halloween decor. We started out by making a few ghosts and pumpkins and then we got creative. There are a couple that are pretty silly, especially Mr. Purple Crazy Eyes. We enjoyed painting them together and I'm sure trick-or-treaters will like them on our porch!

Need a fun Halloween/Monster movie night idea? Try this with you family! Check out our other Disney date featuring Maleficent.

Date 130 - I've FALLen for you!

Date: Sunday, September 28, 2014
Type: Out on the Town, Seasonal
Cost: $$
Planned By: Both

Adam and I decided to make use of the wonderful weather we had for the last weekend of September. We took a short ride over to Szalay's farm in Peninsula. We apparently had the same idea as everyone else in the area because this place was packed! First, we picked out some pumpkins and hay to decorate our porch with. (Check back in a couple weeks for our beautiful pumpkin carving and decorating!)

Second, we went through their 3 acre corn maze. Neither of us have been in a large corn maze in a long time so we had a great time making our way through the maze. 

Inside the corn maze we had to find all 8 pumpkins. They gave us a map that gave us routes to each of them, but we decided to find them on our own. We got lost, ran in to dead ends and made a lot of wrong turns but eventually we found all 8 pumpkins and made it out of the maze!

They decorated the maze with some spooky objects. There were a lot of different scary (not too scary) creatures in all the different corners. It was really well done and cute!

Adam and I both love this season! One of our favorite things about living in Ohio is Fall. The trees are starting to change and the sweater weather is upon us! Szalay's Farm was a wonderful source of fall goodness! We hope to have a few more fall dates before you-know-what starts to hit the ground. 

Have any good date ideas you want to see us do? Leave a comment!