Daddy Date - You Hold The Key To My Heart

Josh and I took advantage of our 8 hour trip to GA this past weekend to read together. The book of choice for this particular trip was "Raising A Modern-Day Princess" by Pam Farrel and Doreen Hanna.

Josh has always been good at taking our kids out on Daddy Dates and this book just motivated him even more to keep it up. Josh was already planning on taking Areyna out on a special date for her birthday and this book gave us a GREAT idea that we decided to make our own.

Josh will be posting about their date in full detail but I'll kind of outline the gist of their day together=)

Here they are helping each other get ready.

All Ready To Go!

First stop: IHop for pancakes - Rainy's choice

Next stop: Violin Shop - they took my first violin to get fixed up for Areyna for her birthday!

Final Stop: The $1 movie to go see Princess And The Frog

The best part of the date occurred at lunch when Josh presented Areyna with a heart and key charm. He explained to her that God had given her to him as his daughter and that God has called him to protect her and to take care of her. He explained that this charm isn't a toy but one day she will eventually be able to give it to her husband. But until that day her daddy will hold her heart and protect it.

I can only imagine the look on her face as she held her heart while her daddy explained how special it was=)

That is our prayer for her...that she would learn to see the importance of guarding her own heart as she waits patiently for her prince that God has created for her.

Daddy Date

A Daddy Date was WAY overdue for Areyna and her daddy.  Josh had to take his guitar in to get some work done on it and he asked if he could take Areyna with him and then take her on a date.  I thought it was a GREAT idea!

First Stop:  Sonic's Happy Hour

2 Bucks, you can't beat that!

Second Stop:  Reedy Creek Park

Absolutely FREE!

Josh got the 'ol GPS out and did a search for "Parks" and this Nature Park came up really close to where they were so they thought they'd go check it out.  What a find!  It's got just a regular park, nature trails, hands-on exhibits and a nature center with nature and animal exhibits.  Areyna couldn't stop talking about it, she had a blast!

Areyna next to a stuffed dear.  

She didn't quite understand why some of the animals were dead and "frozen" but she loved seeing all the different kinds of animals.

Not ALL the animals were "frozen":)

Checking out one of the exhibits with binoculars.

They even got a cool map that showed them where to go.

Areyna was the guide and pretty proud of it!

Josh said he mapped out how far they walked today and they went about 2.5 miles.  Let's just say that I didn't hear a peep from the kids after we shut the door to put them in bed tonight=)

Daddy Dates #4

"Chick-fil-A Playground & A Guitar-lover's Heaven"

Josh had a few errands to run and Rainy was sick at home from school so he said he'd take Zeke with him.  Zeke was SO EXCITED to go on his first "Daddy Date"!

Josh needed to get some guitar strings.  I think Josh alone is keeping Guitar Center in business sometimes=)  He always forgets that they don't open until 10, so when he and Zeke arrived around 9:30 they realized that they had some time to kill.  They drove over to the chick-fil-a playground for a little fun in the FREEZING weather!!!

When 10 o'clock rolled around they were definitely ready for guitar center.  Zeke was in heaven with all the guitars and pedals.  Josh said he had a BLAST!!!  This daddy date Rocked this little Rock Star's world!

Daddy Dates #3

"Donuts With Daddy"

Rainy's preschool had "Donuts With Daddy" on Friday morning before school.  She was so excited for another date with her daddy!  It was a FREE fun time for them and Josh was excited to meet some of the other dad's in Rainy's class.

Daddy Dates #2

Road Trip To Build-A-Bear

Josh has been talking about taking Areyna to Build-A-Bear before we even started daddy dates so we thought this would be perfect.  But then I read about THIS FREE activity at Wal-Mart and thought, "even better"!!!  Well, Josh drove FOREVER to get to the Wal-Mart hosting this activity and they didn't have a clue what he was talking about.  Don't worry we had a back-up plan=)  My friend Melissa had sent us THIS LINK for a coupon (don't worry, they said they'd take expired coupons) for Build-A-Bear so they hopped back in the car in search of Build-A Bear.  

Rainy and Josh on their now greatly anticipated Daddy Date

At Burger King between stops

A short stop to talk to the pretty flowers outside the mall

Building her bear

Loving her new best friend "Tissue"

Areyna named her new bear "Tissue".  Yes, I wrote that correctly=)  She couldn't stop talking about her day.  Later that night when we were hanging out together she cuddled up next to Josh and said, "Dad, you and me are best friends."

You can see a cute video about their adventure on Josh's blog=)

Daddy Dates #1

Starbucks & Flowers

When Josh and I lived in Henderson, NC we lived right next door to the Pastor's house at the church we worked at.  We would watch him interact with each of his children on a personal level.  We'd see him getting in the car with one of his daughters to go on a date to get some breakfast, swinging with another while chatting about school and running across the street with his son to go test out the toy airplane that they'd just put together by themselves that morning.  We often spoke about how we wanted to be like that with our kids.  What sweet memories.  What a GREAT foundation.  Some of the sweetest memories that I have with my own dad were on special outings we took together, just the two of us.

Now, with kids of our own, Josh has started his own "daddy date" traditions.  A couple of weeks ago he took Rainy on their first "date" together.  She was a little skeptical as she walked out the door, not knowing what to expect, but came home with a fist full of flowers and a huge smile on her face.  I love that Josh feels the importance of being the most important man in his daughter's life right now.  

I'm going to start a new series called DADDY DATES to give you some ideas that you can implement with your own families and give you a chance to share your own ideas with me and others.

Josh took Areyna to Starbucks for some chocolate milk and a muffin.  He brought along a couple of Dora card games.  When they were in the middle of playing the first round she looked up at him and said, "Daddy, can we just talk?", and talk they did.  Then they went to the post office to get some stamps.  Their last stop was to pick out some special flowers for Josh's 2 favorite ladies in his life.  White ones for Rainy and yellow ones for Mommy.  It was a rainy day and she came back wearing Josh's button down shirt around her shoulders and looked so proud.

How about you?  Do you have special dates with your kids?  I'd love to get some feedback and some ideas.  There will def. be pictures of the next date=)