{Dates By The Dozen}

Happy Monday my blogger friends! I hope everyone had a fabulously relaxing weekend! We had a college friend come and visit and it was wonderful! I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for the sweet words about finally getting a job! You all are wonderful!

This week we have our big office reveal, so get excited for that! Today I wanted to share with you my inexpensive DIY wedding gift I gave Wendel.

On our wedding day, I gave Wendel 12 pre-planned dates for our first year of marriage. It was an inexpensive and fun way to force us to have special dates nights. I got the idea from this blog, but did my own spin {i.e. didn't buy all the gift cards...I'm cheap what can I say!}

All I did was open up a Word Document, and start typing ideas for each month. I didn't make them very cute {sadly} but to tell you the truth...I did this the week of our wedding! Then I printed them out, glued them on some scrap-booking paper and added some stickers and things that I had! Then slipped them in some envelopes and wrote the month on it!

Easy-peasy right? So go and do it for your husband/fiance/boyfriend now! Go!

The rule was he couldn't open them until the first of each month. I thought that it would be so hard to wait until the first of each month, but as we all know, life gets busy! We would totally forget and we were lucky if we opened them in the right month.

I have to admit...we kind of slacked on actually doing them! We still haven't done a few of them...opps!  But I'm planning a few special somethings to get all of our "left overs" in a few special dates!

So here they are...our monthly dates!

June- Picnic at Botanical Gardens in Birmingham

We were heading down to Birmingham for one of my best friend's weddings. So we had planned to have a picnic in one of our favorite Birmingham places...the Botanical Gardens. Well life got busy, so we didn't have time to do it there.

So....one night I decided to surprise him from work with a picnic in the Nati.

{Side note...how hilarious is it that he is so excited...love that man!}

He came home to this, and we were off to a local park. But then we realized it was 95+ degrees...and we have a pool and AC...so why would we go out? 

So we took a short trip to our basement...

And ate downstairs! It was cool, relaxing, and perfect! 

July- Star gazing in the country

One of my favorite things to do...but we totally forgot about it...and still haven't done it! To be done soon! 

August- A weekend trip to Dublin, Ohio for the Dublin Irish Festival! 

Alex is a Celtic music/Irish culture NUT! So we took a little weekend trip to see one of his favorite Irish bands...The Young Dubliners! 

It was hot, but we had a blast! 

Lots and lots of bag pipers! 

Good music, and a dark beer...he was in heaven! 

September- Apple picking! 

There is a fruit farm about 20 minutes from Cincinnati, so we headed there to pick some apples and then come home and make an apple pie! 

Then we got there...and there was no U-Pick apples because we had such a dry summer! 

But we had a blast anyways! There were alpacas...never had seen one! Kind of loved them! 

Then we took a hay ride to a corn maze! Loved every single second of it! A fall ritual for sure!! 

And I had just gotten new boots...so we got a lot of pictures of my feet! 

You could buy apples in the corner store {plus some amazing apple fritters...fried goodness!} So we bought a peck...they totally measured in bushels and pecks...I thought that was precious! 

October- Pumpkin Patch

We ended up doing this with the family...because we just can't get enough of them! So we headed off to one of our favorite pumpkin patches for a day of fun! 

My good lookin' hubby! 

Husband...he's precious! 

This pumpkin patch makes little scenes out of pumpkins so we had fun walking through all of the "stories" and then took a hay ride! 

Can you tell we had a blast? 

December- Ice Skating and Carriage Ride Downtown

We totally failed at this! We did a really cute little date night at Bonefish, and were going to go downtown to do this date. Then we realized how cold it was and so we went home to watch and movie and sip hot coco! Next year...we HAVE to do this! 

 January- Perfect North

Embarrassed...totally didn't do this one either! This is a place to go skiiing, and Alex and I have been wanting to go for seven {yes 7} years! Why haven't we gone? No reason at all! We want to, but we just get busy! Total fail...but we'll be doing this one this year too {hopefully!} 

February- Fancy Date Night

So we only did half of this. Part one was to research a place we've never been and decide together where we'd go! Well we did that! We found a Groupon to go to a place called Tellers. It's a cute little place in Hyde Park that used to be a bank! They've turned it into this swanky little restraunt and you can actually eat in the vault! But instead of going there for Valentines, we went to our first date place, The York Street Cafe! But have no fear, I have a plan to make this one even more special this weekend! Check back next week to see what I have planned!

March- Rock Climbing

Well...we're terrible people! Have't done this one yet either! My mom got Alex a gift card to go to Climb Time {our local rock climbing gym} for his birthday! But during this time, we was training for his first marathon and didn't want to get hurt. Then we got in our wreck...so we'll be doing this one hopefully in August once we both get cleared! 

April- Visit a Local Winery

We are so blessed to have a few local wineries just a few minutes from our home! Who knew!? But guess what...we still have't done this one yet! Terrible I know...but I have a plan for this one soon. So check back next week to see what we did! 

May- Hiking

Well we were going to wait until school slowed down to do this one, but then we got in a wreck! We did a hiking date in November though, so I kind of count that one. However, we're planning another trip once we're cleared! So August...you will be seeing some hiking from the Wendels! 

So here we go! Horrible right? I cannot believe we were so terrible at actually doing these dates! But...it's the thought that counts right? We are excited to get the rest of these puppies done, so be on the look out for the rest of these dates very soon! 

So tell me...do you and your loved ones do cute date nights? Tell me it's not just me that loves this? Fill me in! Give me ideas! I'd love to hear from you all!

Go check out the update on our Date By The Dozen here!