Dating Diva Guest Post

Tara from The Dating Divas will be sharing fun ideas you can do on a date with your hubby. This is such a fun post; enjoy!

I am SUPER excited to be doing a guest post for Sachiko on her creative "Tea Rose Home" blog! I think she just comes up with the most fun ideas! Her cardigan makeovers, bag embellishments, and overall creativity just STUNNED me!! :) When I first happened onto her blog by chance....I think my jaw dropped. I definitely do NOT have sewing skills....I am more of a drill, paint, cut, mod podge, & scrapbook kind-of-gal.....so I can learn a LOT from Sachiko!!

I am Tara, one of the *divas* blogging for the website, The Dating Divas.

I am married to my best friend, addicted to crafting & coming up with creative dates for my sweetie & me, AND I loooove blogging with some of my closest friends. Life is good! On The Dating Divas website, we are all about coming up with crafty ideas & creative dates that will help strengthen our relationships...and I have the PERFECT one to share with you. Sachiko thought this creative date to share with her readers....and as it was one of my FIRST to air on our website, I sure hope you are ready to gather a GROUP of friends & get CRAZY.....cuz this date is a lot of fun!!

Ah....I see that I caught your attention, huh!

The "Choose Your Own Adventure" Date

This date was inspired by the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books I used to read in Elementary School. I was a pretty outgoing kiddo….but I was also SUCH a bookworm! :) Seriously! Even now…when I pick up a book, the whole world disappears….and my husband has to say my name at least four times before he can get me to respond! :)

First the INVITE!! The wording was “fashioned” after the wording that is on the books….you can download the invite HERE or HERE. (The second one has “Love Your Amazing Woman” at the bottom.) You can insert it into a Word Document to make it any size you’d like. You can either insert the date info with text boxes OR handwrite it on after it’s printed. Just print it onto white cardstock…I mounted it on some colored paper as well….and taped it on our Master Bathroom mirror a few days prior to the date.

My husband, Jamie, LOVED it!

We invited four couples over to our house & once everyone was assembled - we {the wives} handed the guys FIVE envelopes. On the front of each envelope was a poem about a restaurant. The guys had to read the poems aloud and figure out WHICH restaurant the poem was about. They were then allowed to open the envelope of the place they all wanted to eat at…and that is where we headed.

Each girl made up a poem/riddle/clue (in advance) for a place they knew their husband would love to eat. The choices were: Cafe Rio, Fudruckers, Island’s Restaurant, Pei Wei, & Farmer Boys (…we were trying to keep it a “low-budget” night…).

After the guys figured out all of the clues…they couldn’t decide which place they wanted to go to – they liked them ALL! My husband finally put the top three choices on the ground and called our little Yorkie to come over. The envelope Jaxston (our dog) walked up to was Island’s Restaurant!

We then divided up into two groups….for the two cars that would take us there. And…of course….since this is an ADVENTUROUS date….we had to do something fun in the car on the way to our restaurant!! Each driver was handed an envelope full of “Car Tasks”. At each stoplight, we took turns pulling out a task to complete! It was HI-LA-RI-OUS!!!

I tried to take pictures of the others doing their tasks. In our car, we decided it would be more fun if we ALL did each task…here are some pictures of the differents ones we had to do (you may need to click on the pictures to make them bigger…):

We received a lot of fun AND funny reactions from people in other cars. Some people in one car even started dancing along with us!!

After our eventful car ride to the restaurant…we arrived, were seated, and we ordered our SUPER yummy food. I then introduced the “Restaurant Tasks” envelope. Each person had to choose at least one task out of the envelope and complete it sometime during our meal.

It was SUCH a hit that the group decided to try two tasks each. I didn’t get any of the pictures of the tasks because most of them were verbal….but I CAN say that we were laughing a ton! Here are a few of them:

• When the waitress comes to the table say, “This food is SCRUM-DIDDILY-UMPTIOUS!!!!!” (If there is no waitress – say it to anyone that walks by.)



• When the waitress asks “How is everything?” loudly proclaim, “I’m having the BEST night of my life!!!” (Try to say that phrase at least 2 more times before dinner ends.)



• Mention MC Hammer in three sentences throughout the dinner.



• Tell about your first date with your spouse.



• Make Star Trek door noises whenever someone passes the table. (Our friend, Nathan – did a GREAT job with this one!)

I have to tell you a little bit about ONE of my tasks! The task was:

Go over to another table, ask them how their food is and if they are enjoying their dinner. Perhaps you can offer to take their plates/trays if they are finished.

I chose a table consisting of two parents and a child. It looked like they were just finishing up….PERFECT! My group was all done, and I was hoping that I could quickly complete my task and then we could all walk…er… sneak out.

I walked up to their table and asked how their meal was. They looked at me, a little puzzled…(probably because I wasn’t wearing the standard uniform…)…and told me that they really enjoyed their meal. I then asked if they needed anything before they left. They replied that they were just fine, but thanks!

I turned around to see our group trying to stiffle laughter and we all quickly walked out. THEN – as we were standing in front of the restaurant, talking before heading to the two cars, that FAMILY walked out!! My husband spotted them and loudly proclaimed, “Hey! There’s the family whose table you went up to!!” Totally his personality to do something like that!

They came over and we chatted with them for a minute – I told them that they were part of a game we were playing and I thanked them for being such good sports. They thought it was pretty funny as well. They told me that they were a little confused because they hadn’t seen me all night! :) Overall, the ”Restaurant Tasks” were a blast and it kinda reminded me of the game, “Curses”. (If you have never played that game – I totally recommend it!)

Before leaving the restaurant – the guys were given FIVE more envelopes with clues/riddles on the outside pertaining to different activities we could do. Their choices were: Laser Tag, Miniature Golf, Rock Band, Game Night, or watching the dueling pianists at the Paris Casino down town. You can see which choice was the popular one….

We headed back to our place and had a blast playing Rock Band.

Right before the date ended, I was able to snap a photo of the guys with their “Choose Your Own Adventure” choices….

(Nathan, Dustin, Jamie, & Ezra)

You can download the ENTIRE “Choose Your Own Adventure” Date zipped file HERE! I included blank cards for you to write your own clues/riddles OR if you have the same restaurants and activities in your town, you can use the ones we made up.

So what is OUR website all about? I told you a little above....but in case you were curious....our website is what happens when a BUNCH of super crafty friends get together & come up with solutions for strengthening their marriages.

We blog about amazing & creative date ideas, fun gift ideas for our spouses, quick & easy romance ideas, CRAFTY tutorials, and MUCH, much more!! ANYTHING that would help enhance our already ROCKIN’ marriages!! We even decided to share tips on how to look good for our man AND ideas on how to keep things HOT in a certain room…..

…but you are gonna have to visit our blog for THAT!

Stop on by The Dating Divas to get more ROMANCE tips so you can keep dating that amazing spouse of yours! We love spreading the word about our blog….and we hope it will strengthen YOUR relationship as much as it has ours!!

Thanks again for letting me hang out with the "Funky Time" crew today!