A Date with Mom and Dad

I enjoy watching the TV show Jon and Kate Plus 8. They have two twin girls who are around 6-7 years old and then sextuplets that are three years old. I don't really know how they do it. Some days I can't even handle five kid; they have 8 and I can't imagine having 6 kids the same age as Cameron. Anyway, I recently noticed that they make a point of taking each of their 8 children out on dates for one on one time. I thought this was a great idea so we started it in our family. We assigned each child a month in which they'll be able to go on a date with Mom and Dad that month. Each child will get at least two dates a year. We started with Cameron in March and Kylie in April. For Cameron's date we took him to a really nice McDonald's playland. He loves the firetruck he can climb inside there. He got a Happy Meal with chocolate milk. He really enjoyed the attention he got from Mom and Dad. We didn't take our camera to McDonald's , but here's a picture of him with the pirate toy from his Happy Meal.

Kylie wanted to go to a brand new park for her date. Courtney was nice enough to watch the other kids so Kylie had Mom and Dad all to herself. She loved it. We played with her on the playground and went on the swing together.

Afterwards, we went out to ice cream. Lloyd and I really enjoyed spending that time alone with that one child. We are looking forward to a date with Katelyn in May and Courtney in June. We hope this is a tradition that lasts. It's hard to compete for attention in a large family and this will be a special time we can all look forward to. I think Lloyd and I are going to enjoy it as much as the kids do!