Valentine’s Day Love Date 2022

Join us for our annual mother/son and father/daughter Valentine’s Day Love Date and a fun surprise this year!

I never really thought much of Valentine’s Day until I was single in college surrounded by friends who were either dating or engaged and suddenly I realized I didn’t love this particular day set aside to celebrate “love.”

I had a classmate whose dad drove several hours to our school to have their traditional father/daughter Valentine’s Day date, and I remember thinking that if I had a son I would take him out for Valentine’s Day for as long as he would let me.

Fast forward to when Caleb turned 4 and he called our Valentine’s Day date, a “Love Date,” so for the last couple of years, Zach takes his girls (this was Lily’s first year), and I take my little man on a Love Date. 

Zach and I prioritize a monthly date night anyway, so we make Valentine’s Day special for our kids since Valentine’s Day happens every month for us already 🙂

We write cards, take them out for dinner, and then usually plan something special afterward.

This year we had a surprise for them!

Valentine’s Day Love Date

2019

Every year getting just ONE picture with this kid is like pulling teeth. Or in this case, I am literally pulling his arm to try to get him in a picture. Hahaha.

At 4 years old this was the best we could get. This year we went out to eat and then I took him to see Despicable Me in the theater.

Look at these two. Cutest pic ever. Gracie looks so little!

Valentine’s Day Love Date

2020

Ah, the year of the in-between hair length. Ugh. His heart was in the right place though. Read all about Caleb’s long hair story HERE. It will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, I promise.

This year I took him to a video arcade, and he was in heaven. 🙂

Cuties! They look so much alike.

Valentine’s Day Love Date

2021

It’s hard to believe this was only last year. That hair!

Caleb so desperately wanted to play the Jurassic Park arcade game again this year, but with COVID I couldn’t find arcades open. Then I found a random bowling alley that actually had the Jurassic Park game.

He couldn’t believe it.

Pictures with Caleb be like . . .

It’s been such a sweet tradition over the years.

Valentine’s Day Love Date

2022

Speaking of tradition. I counted and out of 43 photos on my phone, there was only 1 where both he and I were looking and smiling.

Seriously. Booger.

This was it! I’ll take it.

Can you believe that next year I could be standing here with BOTH of my little men?! Cue the tears. Read our latest adoption update.

Our kids can start going on the dates when they turn 4, so this was Lily’s first year to join. Daddy and his girls.

Living on the edge, as usual.

Caleb fell in love with churros while we were in Cancun, Mexico a couple of weeks ago, so this year I took him to Plaza Azteca because they have the most amazing churros with fried ice cream.

Our tradition is to play the alphabet game. There are two ways to do this: either find the letters on the placemat and walls around you OR find objects beginning with that letter around you.

I love their chicken fajita salad.

I ordered us each our own plate of churros with a shared dish of fried icecream and the waitress looked at me and said “good luck” which I remember thinking was a funny thing to say but she was primarily Spanish speaking so I didn’t think much of it.

Well, as luck would have it by the time the dishes arrived Caleb said he was so full of nachos, chicken nuggets, and French Fries he didn’t eat a SINGLE CHURRO.

I was able to get down two churros and a half of the fried ice cream before I had to call it quits.

Zach and the girls were happy to help us the next day with the rest. Ha.

This year we surprised the kids by meeting up for the evening at Bounce Kraze!

At one point when Lily and I were climbing up this bouncy slide, Lily turned around and said “You can do it Mommy” and reached out her hand to help me up.

Which made me laugh consequently making it even more difficult to get up this stupid thing than it already was.

We had so much fun!

You could really fly down these slides.

So many sweet memories.

Don’t forget to enter the podcast giveaway below! Just one more day until the weekend friends! Hooray!