My how date nights have changed

Last week, Superman and I were feeling very frustrated with parenthood and mentioned to his parents that we'd love a night off.  So, they offered to take the boys overnight one night this weekend.  Let the countdown begin!  Everyday it was "# more sleeps til your sleepover at Grandma and Papaw's."  The boys were looking forward to their slumber party at their grandparents' house, but not as much as we were looking forward to our night alone.

Then Saturday came.  Grandma and Papaw came to pick up the boys, and Superman and I still didn't know what we were going to do for our night alone.  At first, we busied ourself around the house working on individual projects.  But as it started getting dark I started bugging him, "what are we going to do tonight?"

Going to a movie sounded too overpriced and there wasn't anything we particularly wanted to see anyway. Dot Dot Dot was playing at the Bluebird, but we couldn't imagine staying up that late to go see a band at a bar.  We didn't want to go out to dinner because I'm back on Weight Watchers and eating out can be tough for me right now.  Basically, none of the traditional date night things were working for us.

So, I said "Do you remember B.C. when we used to cook together all the time?  Let's both cook dinner tonight, just like the old days."  So we did.  We made a delicious shrimp stir-fry and ate it slowly, without having to tell anyone to sit down or take "just two more bites."  Then, we both did the dishes together without having to decide who was going to clean up and who was going to give the bath.

Then, we decided to do something that we never get to do anymore...go shopping alone.  Together.  What a quiet, peaceful, relaxing evening of walking around a store and having the luxury to not hurry.  Not have to worry that something will get broken.  That a boy will wonder off.  Or throw a fit when he doesn't get what he wants.

After thoroughly browsing through some of our favorite stores, we headed home and whipped up a batch of popcorn.  Then, we cuddled up on the couch to watch a movie on Netflix.

We enjoyed a wonderful night of sleeping with no little boys coming in and taking up space, kicking us, stealing blankets, or waking us up early.

Speaking of waking up early... We slept in.  Then took our time getting ready for church in the morning (although we still managed to be late!), and then afterwards continued our shopping spree.  We went to the mall and just enjoyed walking around.  It was heavenly.

This afternoon, Grandma and Papaw brought the boys home and we all enjoyed a big Brinner while the boys excitedly told us about their sleepover.  Eating chicken nuggets, playing with Grandpa's train, and talking to their cousin.

It is wonderful to have the boys home, because we did miss them even after just 24 hours.  But, it was so incredibly nice to have some time to just be us again.  Back to the us we were for almost 5 years before becoming the us we are as parents.