Same Old, Same Old {May Date Night}

Being more intentional about getting time together as a couple sans kiddos meant we had to put it on the calendar. At the end of 2013, I added a monthly date night onto our Google calendar for the 3rd Monday of the month. (I wrote more about Marriage Goals in Action at Next Level Mama.) We haven’t planned the dates much beyond that point. Most of our date nights have been having dinner out (because we’re wannabe foodies), but we have stretched ourselves to be creative before, so hopefully we can vary things through the year. Any date night ideas?

May Date Night
I think we had a mini-date night this month already, but it had been a whirlwind of activities with the end-of-school-year stuff going on, so we needed some us time. Our church was having a family movie night, so we sent the kids off with the grandparents, and left for a date, which of course, consisted of feeding our bellies (thus the blog post title 😉 hehe)! The girls had a great time and even won a copy of Horton Hears a Who! DVD at the movie night.

The Place
Perhaps our goal is to go to all the sushi places in the area. We ended up at Sushiland, which is a small place off of Mission Blvd in Hayward. I remember driving down this street many times during college years. The restaurant got fairly good reviews on Yelp, so off we went.

The Food
Seaweed salad and some rolls

Us
While we didn’t do much out of the ordinary, it was nice to go somewhere sans kiddos. I don’t think there were other kids at this restaurant either, so we also didn’t have to hear other people’s child bothering them. :p

Related:

• Berkeley Restaurant Week {January Date Night}
• Closed on Mondays {February Date Night}
• MOPS and Pops {March Date Night}
• Parents’ Night Out {April Date Night}

Parents’ Night Out {April Date Night}

Being more intentional about getting time together as a couple sans kiddos meant we had to put it on the calendar. At the end of 2013, I added a monthly date night onto our Google calendar for the 3rd Monday of the month. (I wrote more about Marriage Goals in Action at Next Level Mama.) We haven’t planned the dates much beyond that point. Most of our date nights have been having dinner out (because we’re wannabe foodies), but we have stretched ourselves to be creative before, so hopefully we can vary things through the year. Any date night ideas?

April Date Night
Our church’s children’s ministry had a Parents’ Night Out last Friday. After Melody’s choir rehearsal, I went to get Norm who just arrived home from work. We headed to church, and got the kids settled in. They were going to have a pizza dinner, crafts, and movie night. All the couples gathered to get some ground rules. We were not allowed to talk about our kids, our in-laws, work, or money. Then, we all headed off to our dates. The only other parameter was that we would be back by 9:30PM to get our kiddos.

The Place
During our February Date Night, we wanted to try iSushi, but they were closed on Mondays. You are probably noticing a theme with our date nights. Food is usually involved…although there are going to be more of these Parents’ Night Out, and I think it is long enough for us to catch a movie next time. We haven’t been to the theater since before we were married…2004, I think. iSushi is a small restaurant in Castro Village. Norm made reservations, so we were sure to get a seat.

The Food
They had the usual rolls there, but we decided to try some of their specialty items. Norm will probably do a review of the place soon.

Eric & Lori ~ Club K9: Tempura scallop & asparagus w/ 3 special  sauces

Here is the owner showing the jumbo prawns!

Norm was lucky there was botan ebi this particular day. Usually there is only the amaebi. I tried botan ebi for the first time.

Danielle: Hand torch Kobe beef with tuna & fresh wasabi
and
Rene & Spring, which I can’t remember what was in it, but it is something with chocolate, strawberry, and salmon…

Green tea ice cream on the house

The Activity
It actually really took us the whole time to have dinner. The place was super packed since it was a Friday night, and it is a popular restaurant. The dishes we ordered also had a wait time on the menu. We didn’t mind since we were kids-free! Since there were the few things we couldn’t talk about, we ended up chatting away about our upcoming vacation and future vacations. I think we might also talked about sports, because that’s obviously what you do on a date, right? We were also wondering what some of the other couples were up to. I think another couple also went out for sushi, and another went out for BBQ.

Us
We failed at getting an “us” photo again, but here we are on our date night. I still think this is an interesting pic of me because it looks like I have bangs and layered hair. I don’t have bangs or layered hair. :p

A huge thanks to our children’s ministry director and some of the college students at our church who hung out with our kids for the evening while we went out. 🙂

Related:

• Berkeley Restaurant Week {January Date Night}
• Closed on Mondays {February Date Night}
• MOPS and Pops {March Date Night}