12 Mommy Daughter Dates

Last year I was trying to think of a good gift for my girls for Christmas. They really love quality time so when I found Shopkins Live tickets for a few months later I thought it would be awesome! A few months prior, though, I'd taken them each on a fun Mommy Daughter date to soak in the time together before their baby sister made her arrival. We had SO MUCH FUN and they talked about it for weeks. So I came up with giving them a years worth of Mommy Daughter Dates!

This picture should really start with a January envelope, but...I didn't take one of them before I gave them to my girls so...

I really loved the idea of giving this to them at Christmas time, because after you've done all your Christmas activities, Santa shopping, regular shopping and funding all the goodies, it feels like your money is in your hands for approximately 2 seconds before it's flying away again! I didn't have to pay for all of these dates up front! HA!

My goal was to spend around $10 on each date, but many of them are free. The real goal was to just spend time together one on one. I learned very fast that they didn't mind that at all! They didn't think about not "getting things" because they were just thrilled as heck to be hanging out with me (something that won't be usual in just a few short years). Since they each got a date every month, that put it to around $20 a month, which I felt was highly worth it, but you can customize however you want!

I kept the Shopkins Live idea for Febuary and decided to do a combined Girls Night Out twice in the year where we all do something together as girls. They just opened their 2nd Girls Night Out date which was our date for August.

As far as putting these together, it's incredibly simple! I found some fun multi-colored envelopes at Walmart...

And I designed each date on the computer to print off on cardstock to stick in the envelopes. You can honestly just chop papers up into squares and write the dates with a Sharpie if you want! The effect will be the same. They open theirs on the Sunday before a new month starts and we plan when we'll do it. They usually get excited and want it right at the first of the month. But for things like this one in September, it's best to wait until the end of the month!

Here is the list of dates I made for the year. A lot of the dates I did the same each month for both girls. But sometimes I'd use the same date idea, but put them in different months for them because their personalities called for it. And some are different for each girl that month because the other girl wouldn't be interested in the other date. Does that make sense?

Basically, just look at your months and what your girls like to do during those months and what they like to do in general and just go for it. Things like Starbucks I wouldn't put in the dead of summer and I wouldn't take one of my girls to Bath & Body Works because she doesn't care for it like the other does. They both like Great Harvest but one would love it in the winter more.

$10 at Deseret Book +
Pick out Florences Chocolates

Girls Night Out!: Shopkins Live!

Movie Night 
(Kick the family out for an at-home movie night with treats or go out to the theatre with a few treats smuggled it heh-heh..)

Lunch at Great Harvest

$10 to Claires+
Cookie Place

$10 to Bath and Body Works
(Try on all the fun scrubs and lotions!)

$10 to Ulta
(Try on all the fun makeup!)

$10 to Hobby Lobby +
Lemonade
(We love Chick-fil-A lemonade and use our app to get it curbside! Not gonna lie we also ordered a chocolate chunk cookie)

Prepared Pantry & Baking the goods we picked out

Soda Tsunami
(Or any fun soda shop)

Scooter date!
(We scootered to our local Icy shack but you can go anywhere!)

Girls Night Out!: Dress up and go out to dinner with an at-home spa night afterwards

Fall bike ride & picnic

Starbucks date & Christmas Shopping

$10 to Barnes & Noble

Explaining Santa's Gifts

We're approaching the big holiday season. Already. I'm still trying to get a nap in from last years Christmas. But, ready or not, it's coming. Are you prepared?! Your kids are older this year, and just might give you a run for your money with the Santa questions.

Every Christmas, we see parents all over trying to teach their kids the importance of giving, service and kindness. We see them doing their best to add a child in need to their Christmas list to be a good example. We bake cookies for neighbors, we drop off a turkey anonymously to a family's doorstep that we know is struggling financially.

But, when a child asks, "why doesn't Santa go to the homeless shelter?" Or, "why can't I ask for this $500 gift from Santa?" what do we say? That Santa picks and chooses which kids to visit, and that he also has a budget? Santa has RULES? Where's the fun in that?!

While there are plenty of great churchy and inspiring ways to deal with things like this where you can sit down with your children and give a lengthy and perfectly worded explanation, sometimes you need just a few words to get your point across. The best words I've ever heard someone say to their kids when these questions started popping up was,..

"Yeah, Santa brings the gifts, but Mom and Dad still have to pay for it."

I know there are many families out there who don't do the Santa thing, and that's okay. Every family is different, so if you're a family who cherishes those few years where your kids still believe in Santa and you don't want to break down saying, "Santa isn't real" when they ask the tough questions, this might be what you're looking for! These few words allow the magic of Santa to continue on while allowing some reality to the situation to be factored in. 

Children can grasp the ideas of some families having a larger budget than others. That's life, and they're typically already aware of it before anyone ever actually brings it up to them. Simply stating that Mom's and Dad's are still in charge of paying for their Christmas even when Santa and his helpers do all the work connects so many dots for them!

A family in need is still a family in need, even when Santa is involved. A $500 toy is still a $500 toy, even when Santa is involved. This answer might not be what you were looking for or work for your kids. If not, that's okay. There are plenty of other ways you can talk to your kids about these things. But for our family, it has worked great!