dinner at eight :: a pretty picnic {and a challenge}

{Dinner at Eight is a special project I am doing with my friend Andi this year - planning date nights at home for our husbands every other week, putting the kids to bed early and being intentional about our marriages! Read more dinner at eight posts HERE!}

Andi and I thought that this Summer needed a little picnic date night at home something simple and pretty and easy to set up in our own backyard. And let me tell you guys this was SO simple - the only thing I was worried about was the weather holding and just after Mr. Gough came in the door the sunshine poked it's sweet face out and it made our backyard so beautiful and romantic. Our boys have vacation bible school this week at church so I told Chris to go drop them off and then hurry home because I had a surprise picnic dinner all ready for him.

I brought out a big toy basket to set some candles and dessert out and used a big vintage quilt that my grandmother made years ago. We kicked off our shoes and enjoyed each others company for awhile.

Little miss Josie joined us on the grass and got to partake in a little bit of everything but she was most excited about the striped straws that I put in the ice tea...can you blame her those straws are seriously so cool :)!

The menu was easy I bought a roasted chicken and made my favorite black bean and corn quinoa salad with french bread. We had strawberries and vegan chocolate chip cookies along with peach ice tea for dessert. I lit some candles in jars as per usual and also picked a handful of daisies from the yard for a little decoration.  

I had planned on us lingering outside to do some star gazing after the kids went to bed but both Chris and I are still sick (getting old) so we opted for a shorter date than usual. It was special nonetheless to be with my sweetheart for a few hours hearing about whats on his heart with work at UGM - ps. any of you local friends would you ever be up for serving with me at the Union Gospel Mission? Let me know I think we could organize something pretty awesome!

These date nights at home are always so much fun even if it is a little bit more of an effort the rewards are truly worth it when I think about how blessed I am to have intentional time as a couple!

So what about you? You guys ready to get involved too - Andi and I are excited to take the Dinner at Eight feature to the next level and challenge all of you to a little intentional date night once a month with your sweethearts too. It's going to be super simple our heart in the project is to really just encourage all of you who might feel tired and weary or not have the means to go out for a date on a regular basis. Dating our husbands at home is possible with a little bit of creativity and a willingness to laugh if it doesn't go perfectly. Each month we are going to come up with the theme for you and set up a linky on THIS PAGE (you can link from the heart on my navigation bar above) so that any time during the month you are welcome to plan a date night at home and then post about it on your blog, add the Dinner at Eight button to the post and then come back and link up so that we can all see and be inspired and encouraged.

For the rest of July the them is "a pretty picnic" we want to see how you guys would stage it. Inside, outside, a surprise, lots of pillows and a fire? The skies the limit and the only rule is you must link back to the Dinner at Eight page. Andi and I will choose a few favorite dates to feature on our blogs too!

 We hope that you all feel really encouraged and uplifted by this project and adding a bit of accountabilty really helps us we thought it might help you too. May you be blessed this month and have fun planning a sweet date night at home!

Read all about the project and get involved HERE!