Great dating makes great mating!

Jess and I had a fun date yesterday! I can't wait to share what we did. We are so lucky to have relatives just a couple of doors away in both directions in our little cul-de-sac, so we hardly ever have to pay for babysitting.

Well, I took over the date. I told Jess to just make sure to keep his Saturday afternoon/evening free because I had a surprise date for him. We went to Il Vicino oven-fired pizza restaurant and right next to that is Cocoa Dolce, the BEST chocolate you've EVER had. If you ever want to impress somebody, get them this chocolate.

Then, we drove home and on the kitchen table I set up some paints and canvases. We painted each other's portraits! It was a blast--we laughed and made fun of ourselves and each other. It actually kind of felt like that dating-before-marriage feeling.

I'm learning that stepping out of the rent-a-movie routine, or even the restaurant-and-then-a-movie routine, yields a lot more fun. We just had gotten into a rut and it was fun to be more spontaneous.

The kids like our portraits, do you?