Date 28 - The Almighty Dollar!

Date: 2/25/12
Type: Creative, Casual, Funny, Fun
Cost: $
Planned By: Adam

What can you buy with a dollar? Not too much, but you will be surprised what Adam came up with for our dollar themed date night!! Now people you may think you can't afford a nice date, but you all can afford this! OK, the other person may call you a cheap skate, but it is a very creative and really fun date. You don't need to spend tons of money as long as your with the person you love a dollar is enough. I bet my bottom dollar you and your date will remember this night.

We started out at the Dollar Tree. We each got to buy one fun thing for $1 a piece. We saw lots of silly stuff, but Adam quickly found a 350 piece puzzle of New York City that he wanted. It took me a while, but I decided to get a blowing bubbles set. We checked out and moved on to dinner.


We had to pick a restaurant with a dollar menu. Adam chose Taco Bell. Not exactly a dollar menu, but they have a value menu with a bunch of dollar or less items. We got a bunch of tacos, nachos and a drink. Yumm... we love taco bell!

Next, we had some fun at Giant Eagle. First, we both bought a couple of $1 lottery scratch off cards. Then we have a fun competition in the candy aisle. We each got a bag and whoever was the closest to 1/4 of a pound or $1 worth of candy won a kiss. We were both under, but I was almost at exactly 1/4 of a pound. I won!!

We went to the dollar theater in Willoughby Hills next. We decided to see The Muppets. The dollar theater is actually $2.00 for the night movies, but close enough. We didn't get any popcorn or pop because those prices were normal. While waiting for our movie we scratched off our lottery tickets. I won a dollar! The movie was really cute and funny. We are both fans of the muppets, and also the main human actors Jason Segal and Amy Adams. The music and plot made the movie really great, and we recommend it. Also they just won an Oscar for best original song; Man or Muppet, which I think deserved it. The rest of the audience in our theater was pretty obnoxious. Mostly children who couldn't sit still or shut up, but that's OK because it was cheap and the movie was good.

Our last stop was at McDonalds for a $1 fudge sundae dessert. It was delicious!

This date was a lot of fun. We had a great time being frugal together. The entire date cost less than $20! If you don't have $20 then you could always take a couple things out.. and if you have more than $20 you can add some things in!

Ratings:
Dollar Tree: 10/10 - had tons of stuff to choose from and everything is a dollar!
Taco Bell: 9/10 - they could have cheaper drinks.
Lottery Tickets: 5/10 - fun to play but we only won $1
Candy Competition: 10/10 - super fun and we got to keep the candy! :)
Dollar Theater: 6/10 - snacks should be a dollar, too!
The Muppets: 9/10 - really cute, could have had a little more adult humor.
McDonalds Fudge Sundae: 10/10 - ice cream and fudge... how could that go wrong. :)

Date 23: You Make My Heart Melt!

Date: 1/21/12
Type: Themed, Creative, Fun
Cost: $
Planned By: Dani

I used the saying "You Make My Heart Melt" to think of a cute date for us this week. I tried to think of a few things that had to do with the word melt, and put them all together to plan a date.

Part 1: I decided we should go to Melt Bar and Grilled for dinner. We had heard really good things about this place. We'd never been there before so we thought we should try it, and what could be a perfect time other than a melt themed date night. We got there around 4PM thinking it would probably be busy any later. We were wrong, it was busy at 4 and we had to wait 45 minutes to eat. It was a little irritating but we waited. They had lots of interesting things hanging on the walls so we played I Spy for a little while. The place was really small so when we finally sat down we were practically sitting right next to two other people. It's OK we didn't mind because we like eaves dropping to keep dinner interesting. Anyway I got the Hot Italian Melt and Adam got the Chorizo & Potato Melt, and they both came with home cut fries. The sandwiches were huge. They were pretty good, but I was expecting something amazing. The fries were delicious. We both decided it wasn't really worth the wait or calories/cholesterol, but it was still a pretty good dinner.

Part 2: What is a type of dessert that already seems melted? A Milkshake! So we used our margarita maker as a blender and made two different types of milkshakes, Mint Oreo and KitKat/Reese. Here's how we made them:
Mint Oreo Milkshake:
Put 4 Scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream, 1.5 cups of milk, 1/2 cup creme de menth in blender and blend a little. Then add oreos and blend to preferred consistency. Garnish the top with extra oreo crumbs.
KitKat & Reese Milkshake:
Put 3 Scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream, 1.5 cups of milk in blender and blend a little. Then add Kit Kats and Reeses and blend to preferred consistency. Garnish the top with leftover candy.
They were pretty yummy, and it was fun making them together.

Part 3: I had to find a fun activity for us that involved something that melts. Because its winter and snow melts I thought a fun winter activity would be good. Building a snow man was the first thing that came to mind. We live in an apartment building so we don't have a yard to build a snow man in, but we do have a balcony that had some snow on it. We made two little snow people, one to represent each of us. We used some bamboo skewers for the arms, a piece of orange straw for the noses, and left over oreos for everything else. We made sure our snow people were holding hands so they had company and went back inside. The next morning they melted :(

Ratings:
Melt Bar & Grilled: 6/10 - long wait, a little expensive, food not as good as we were expecting
Milkshakes: 8/10 - a little too much creme de menth in the mint oreo, reese & kit kats are a little funny together, but they were both still very good!
Snowman Building: 10/10 - building things together is always fun. :)

Date 22: Espresso Yourself!

Day: Saturday, January 14, 2012
Type: Creative & Casual
Cost: $
Planned By: Adam & Dani

So Adam and I have been together for 5 years, since before we were 18. Therefore, we haven't really gone on too many typical dates like you see on TV or in the movies. One date that you always see is just going out for coffee. Adam and I have never done this, so I came up with a twist on this typical date idea; a Coffee Crawl! Its like a shuffle or a pub crawl, but with coffee!! Adam really likes coffee and I like cappuccinos or a mocha.

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for the day. Our first coffee shop stop was Cafe Europa in the plaza across the street from our apartment complex. Adam got the Mudslide Coffee and I got the Europa Mocha. We shared a Chocolate Chip Muffin for breakfast. My mocha wasn't very chocolatey; it tasted more like milk, coffee and only a little bit of chocolate. Adam said his coffee tasted like coffee, with maybe a tiny hint of chocolate. They were pretty good, and the atmosphere was OK, but it was more like a restaurant than a coffee shop.

The next stop was the Arabica Coffeehouse in downtown Willoughby. This was a very nice coffee shop.  It had a great atmosphere and really felt like a nice place to spend your Saturday morning. The shop was filled, but there was a table open for us to sit at. We shared one of their special mochas; The Midnight Mocha. It was made with german chocolate cake syrup. It was delicious! It was really sweet and didn't have much coffee taste, but I didn't mind!

Our last stop was Karma Koffee still in downtown Willoughby. This place was really strange. It was dark inside, no one was there and the girl working was not very friendly. We got our own drinks and as soon as we tasted them regretted our choice. I got the Chocochino and Adam just got a regular coffee. The chocochino was gross. It had zero taste of chocolate and Adam's coffee was also bad. They did have board games though so we played battle ship. The girl at the counter was talking very loudly on her phone the whole time, and there was some really crazy inappropriate song playing. Good thing we're easy to please because it was actually kind of humorous. Adam beat me at battle ship, and we left.

Now, if I were to ever take someone on a coffee date in Willoughby I would definitely recommend Arabica and definetly not recommend Karma Koffee. I really liked that Midnight Mocha, but I truly love McDonald's Peppermint Mocha. We chose not to go to a big business though, and really help out and experience the Willoughby small businesses. We had a lot of fun and it was quite an experience going on our first coffee date together.

Ratings:
Cafe Europa-Bistro: 7/10 - good drinks, good muffin, OK atmosphere
Arabica Coffee House: 10/10 - delicious and great atmosphere
Karma Koffee: 3/10 - the drinks were terrible, but they had board games!

Date 21 - I Don't Wanna Grow Up

Date: Friday 1/6/12
Type: Simple, Creative, At-Home
Cost: $
Planned By: Dani

Adam and I found our inner child this week during our date. It was a very simple fun date. We pretended we were children again.

We started by making Kool-Aid Popsicles. You take your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid, we used grape, and put it in an ice cube tray. Put a popsicle stick or a bamboo skewer in and let them freeze. Super easy and super tasty. My mom used to makes these for us when we were little.

Next, we built a blanket fort in our living room. We got all our sheets, pillows and blankies and started building. We wanted to be able to watch our movie from under it so we left one side open. Our fort stretched from the love seat to the recliner, so practically the entire living room. I did most of the building of the fort while Adam made the the inside of the fort cozy with pillows, blankies and our stuffed animals.

 

We settled in to the fort, at our popsicles, and watched our favorite childhood movie; The Lion King, but this time in 3D!! The Lion King is such a cute movie. It's always fun to watch a children's movie when your an adult, you realize so many more jokes that are directed at the parents. Our favorite part is singing along with all of the songs, and of course we still know most of them.

This date was fun, creative and it was great acting like a kid again!

Date 20 - Who Doesn't Love a Snow Day?

Day: Sunday, 1/1/12

Type: Athletic & Casual
Cost: $$
Planned By: Dani

Sunday was our 5 year anniversary of when we became an official couple. We celebrated by going on a double date with our friends, Cooper and Lorena. They are in town for the holidays from Texas. Lorena had never seen snow before this year or been to Cleveland so we went to Cleveland Indians Snow Days at Progressive Field. Sadly, it didn't snow.. it rained.

Thanks to Progressive we got cheap discounted tickets. We got to the field around 2PM, the weather was pretty crappy and there weren't many people there. We decided to ride the Batterhorn first, a 200 foot snow tubing hill. It was pretty much all ice so we went really fast. It was a lot of fun so we went on it again, and again later.

Next, we ice skated on the frozen mile.It was about 50 degrees out so the frozen mile was melting which made it more difficult to skate on, but don't worry Adam and I took an ice skating class at OU last year so we are pretty much pros. It was Cooper and Lorena's first time, though. 5 laps around the field was a mile and we did 6!

At one point it got so windy that the lit up wooden characters around the field blew down and flew away. When they landed they sparked. Luckily, the wind was blowing away from the visitors and no one got hit.

When our ankles started hurting we quit skating and went in the locker room. We sat and talked and then tried out the Pitch Speed game. It was free so we all played a couple times. It was tracking the speed of our throws. Here are our high speeds:
Cooper: 73 mph
Adam: 46 mph
Dani: 45 mph
Lorena: 37 mph
Not too bad. Adam may have beaten me, but you should have seen some of his throws. Hilarious! He missed the back drop at least twice. He needs to work on his aim.

 

Dinner was next on our list. We were supposed to go to The Chocolate Bar, but it was closed for New Year's Day. I thought I had double checked that, but apparently not. So we went to Tower City, walked around and ate at Houlihans. At first, it seemed like a sport's bar/grille, but it was actually pretty nice inside. Because I really wanted a hot cocoa after playing in the snow, I got a Chocolate Martini (yeah, they're practically the same thing). It tasted like coffee. Adam got the French Dip and I got a Southwest Grilled Chicken Wrap. Cooper got the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and Lorena got the Grilled Rosemary Chicken. Everything looked and tasted really good. I especially liked the fries. I could go for some of those fries right now.

After dinner we walked back to the car, drove back to Willoughby and said good-bye. It was a really fun day, we all had a great time!

Ratings:
Batterhorn: 10/10 - no line, lots of fun, really fast
Frozen Mile: 8/10 - too wet, some areas were dirty which made skating difficult
Pitch Speed Game: 10/10 - free, fun and funny!
Houlihans: 7/10 - good food, but my martini didn't taste like chocolate

Date 19 - All I want For Christmas is You!

Day: Saturday, 12/24/11 - Monday 12/26/11
Type: Christmas
Cost: $$
Planned By: Both
 
Adam and I had a wonderful first Christmas as husband and wife last weekend. We spent a lot of time with family and with each other. We spent time with my family on Christmas Eve, his family on Christmas day, and with each other on the day after Christmas. Most the date part was on Monday, but I will give you a brief description of all the days of our Christmas weekend.

On Christmas Eve we spent time with my dad's side of the family around lunch time. We tried some nice home made beer from my aunt and uncle. I'm not a big fan of beer but my Aunt's raspberry beer actually had a taste of raspberry so I enjoyed it. We exchanged gifts, ate and talked for a couple hours. It was a good time. Next, we spent time with my mom's side of the family for dinner. We tried some home made Niagara wine from my uncle. It was delicious and pretty strong. We had our normal Christmas Eve dinner; Pizza! It was good and the appetizers with it were also tasty. After dinner we played an acting game. It was pretty amusing and our team won! No one was really playing correctly but it was fun anyway. Later we went to Church for Christmas Eve service. I love Christmas Eve service it's one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I really like all the music and my church does a great job with the music! I had a great time singing all the hymns, and there was a cute little boy in the pew in front of us that thought we were hilarious, which we thought was hilarious. We went back to my mom's house and played games then went to bed so Santa could come bring presents.

On Christmas Day we woke up early to go watch our neice and nephew, Madi and Jensen, open up their gifts from Santa. It is very exciting to watch a child get surprised when there are magically presents under the tree. Santa brought them some pretty cool toys, Adam's favorite was the browns themed pillow pets. They each got one so he thought about stealing one. When they finished we went back over to my mom's to open our presents from Santa. I am known for waking everyone up early on Christmas morning so I ran upstairs with a large plastic candy cane and started poking everyone until they got up. It was fun, but Michelle said I could go die in a fire.. that's love. Anyway everyone got down stairs at some point and we started opening presents. Here are some things we got: Money for a new computer, pretty glass coasters for our living room, a dot to dot book, a new vera bradley bag, a shirt, a forever lazy, whiskey stones, a hand made picture frame with our song around our picture, A Christmas Story monopoly, and chocolate covered cherries. We had ham and cheese quiche for breakfast, went and saw my grandma and then went over to Adam's parent's house.

We had a very relaxing time at their house before dinner. We watched a Christmas Magic which was a typical Christmas movie. Adam fell asleep during it, but I thought it was cute. Everyone started showing up around 4 and we ate around 4:30. It was a very nice and delicious Christmas dinner. We sat around talked and opened some presents. We got some nice things from Adam's aunts and uncles. Some Christmas decorations, a picture frame, baking pans, money, and hot cocoa! All the kids played with their new toys for awhile. Then Adam's immediate family opened gifts. We got a soda maker, fleece sheets, a mixer, license plate frame, lottery tickets and a filing cabinet. We got some really nice things, and I'm pretty sure everyone liked what we gave them.

We left for home early on the 26th. We wanted to be home by noon, and we were. We decided to have a lazy day and start using some of our gifts, especially that forever lazy. We had a nice dinner just the two of us. We had ham, cheddar broccoli and pasta for dinner. I made cheesecake cupcakes for dessert. The main part of our Christmas date night was finding and opening our stockings. We put a $15 limit on filling up each others stockings. I found mine first and helped Adam find his. We went back to the living room and opened them. We mostly got candy, but there were a few extra non food items too. It was a lot of fun stuffing each other stockings since we already got the TV for each other for Christmas. For the rest of the night we layed around and watched TV.

 

Without a doubt, it was a great Christmas!