Date Your Daughter!

It was a long day today. We spent the day driving to and from the airport, picking up people coming to Arkansas for a training weekend for work. We left home at 10 a.m. and returned at 6:30 p.m. Lots of miles logged. Good visits with people who are excited to be doing something of significance for the Lord. Yummy lunch at Quizno's. And a new cell phone for me!!! Hooray! After 3 years with my good ol' red phone, it has retired and been replaced by a snazzy new phone that rings when it is supposed to, actually shows when someone has left a voicemail, and has all keys functioning properly. SO. NICE!

When we walked in the door an hour past dinner time, everyone was tired and very hungry. It was then I remembered that both kids have birthday aprties to go to tomorrow morning...and I had forgotten to buy presents. Normally, my gift stash would come through. But this time it produced nothing that would delight a 4-year-old boy or a 7-year-old girl. My sweet hubs suggested that I take Snapper out for dinner and gift shopping. My spirits lifted right away, and Snapper jumped for joy!

Her first choice for dinner was McDonald's (YUCK!), which I promptly ruled out. Her second choice was a great barbeque place. So she enjoyed spaghetti, corn on the cob, and french fries (great combo, eh?), while I stuffed down a half rack of babyback ribs. Yum! Yum! While we ate, we took silly pictures together on my new phone, and talked about school next year. After touring her new school yesterday, Snapper is all excited about starting 2nd grade! They offer some fantastic programs, and the teaching staff was super nice, even going so far as to print off the benchmarks for 2nd grade, and discussing with me what concepts I need to make sure are firmly in place before school starts in August.

After dinner, we headed to Hobby Lobby. Pepper's friend will be receiving a gigantic pad of fingerpaint paper, a new set of finger paints, and a huge bucket of sidewalk chalk. We also purchased a canvas purse, some iron-on letters, and some cute butterfly patches to make a personalized purse for Snapper's friend. Then we headed to Walmart where we picked a whole assortment of lotion, nail polish, body glitter, and lip gloss to go in the purse we're making. Just for fun, Snapper tried on some bathing suits. We didn't buy any, but she had a blast modeling the cute swimwear.

Once our mission was completed at Walmart, we made one final stop for ice cream before heading home. As we sat in the car with our ice cream cones, Snapper said to me, "Mommy, this date was absolutely, completely, entirely, SPLENDID! It was also delightful and delicious! We need to do this more frequently. I think Mommy dates are STUPENDOUS!" I about choked on my ice cream! Once I had regained my composure, I complimented Snapper on her use of very accurate, descriptive, expressive words. She beamed from the back seat. I agree completely--we DO need to do this more often.

So Moms, have you taken your children out one-on-one recently? What fun things did you do together? How did your child respond?