What?!?!?!? Dating already???

One fun thing that we decided to start doing just recently with the kids is to practice some dating.  We thought it was a good idea to have each boy in the family take a girl in the family on a date.  Russel is the chaperone and then the rest of us are paired up.  After much groaning and whining, we got everyone to agree.  We got all dressed up and went out to lunch and then the nutcracker.  I think everyone was pleasantly surprised how fun it actually turned out to be.  After all the complaining, I think they decided it was actually pretty cool.  The boys learned lots about how to treat girls and the girls learned how to let the boys be gentlemen.  A few highlights from the night.....J.D. warned me about ice on the ground as he was opening my car door for me.....he also held my seat down at the nutcracker as I was taking my coat off getting ready to sit down (wow, he's gonna have the girls swooning...he's a natural and needed no prompting from anyone).  Nick told Abi how nice she looked and made sure her drink was refilled and asked her many times if she needed anything.  He also helped her with her coat.  Josh and Meili were very sweet.  He carried her everywhere so she wouldn't slip on the ice and he made her salad for her and served her.  The funniest part of the night was when J.D. and Nick both went and kissed Meili on the cheek.  Josh said "Meili you are a player!"  She giggled and ran and gave them a hug.  Josh then said "Meili, we are breaking up."  She burst into tears and cried and cried.  We couldn't help but start laughing.  They soon made up and all was well.

We tried the date night again a few weeks later and went to dinner and the Pickleville Playhouse Christmas Show.  The kids enjoyed it and it makes for good quality family time.  When we left the house for the date night, Nick said "don't tell us what to do this time mom, let's just see how well we do."  They did great!