It is not often that my husband and I get a date night. Back when we had no kids, we regularly went to dinner together. We would go to the movies. Then kids came and the need for childcare was always our holdback. Babysitters are expensive and we cannot always rely on family to be our pro bono childcare providers. But we would be able to get in the occasional date.

Once a year or so, we would be able to sneak in a night away at a hotel. We would be able to sleep in late and grab a lazy breakfast. It was delightful. Then something happened. We got old. A night in a bed not our own wrecked havoc on our systems. Our backs would hurt and we wouldn’t sleep well. About a year ago we came up with the idea of kid nights away. We would ship all three off to family member’s houses. Aunt Eve is always up for a girls’ night with McKenna. And Regular Grandpa just cannot say no to the boys. We get the comfort of our own bed without the kids wanting to climb in around 4 am or waking us for the day at 6am.

So tonight we have a date planned for a real grown up restaurant. No crayons and children’s menu here. We needed a reservation! We may even get a cocktail or two! This was one of my personal accountability tasks for this week: plan a date with my husband. So we will have dinner. Maybe stop for a nightcap somewhere before coming home to our own amazing bed and peacefully sleeping until we cannot sleep anymore.

Sometime tomorrow, the three kiddos will need to be picked up and the silence will be no longer. But maybe…just maybe…we will be able to repeat this lovely evening again sometime in the next few months.