Seeing as I am leaving this weekend for my First-ever Girls’ Getaway Long Weekend Trip Extravaganza (you guys, when it is the first time happening EVER since becoming a mom almost seven years ago, it deserves a big fancy title!), these few days leading up to the trip itself are a bit different. Yes, there is planning and packing that must take place yet, but also some extra special time with my Littles is needed, too, because, oh my gosh, this is new territory for us and even though it is only four days, it feels (to me and perhaps Ben) like I am going to be gone for. ev. ER!

To counter being gone all weekend, I asked the kiddos if they would like to do Mama Dates this week and when they found out that Mama Dates could equal Mama DESSERT Dates of their choice, they were even more pumped.

I thought we might spread the love out one kid per day but RL just couldn’t handle that, so she and HD both got their turns yesterday. And they both picked Cherry B’s (thanks, RL, for super cute nickname for Cherry Berry), which is to say that Harrison picked it first and then Raegan had to do the exact same (which caused me to flat out tell the gal at Cherry B’s, “see you in a bit!” so she wouldn’t look at me like a crazy person when I came back 20 minutes later with a a second kid).

Harrison love loves Cherry B’s and thanks to some school thing, he had a free 8 oz. cup which he topped himself with junk galore, and dubbed it Extreme Sugar. Sounds about right, but it was free and he didn’t waste any of it and we got to hang out in the seats of his choosing, and he was watching baseball stats on the TV (OK, Little Ben), and all was well.

After that it was a quick trip to Miss L’s Little Free Library where all the kid books were pretty well gone, but he nabbed a cooking magazine instead (why? I don’t know, but he was happy about it) and then we headed home for him to do his screen time while I grabbed Raegge for her turn. 

In some sort of weird sibling twinning phenomenon, Raegan picked the same exact place to sit at Cherry B’s, but her treat was a different concoction that together we named Chocolate Extreme. Note: Mama did not have back-to-back Cherry B’s, thank you very much. The first was good but plenty! Instead, I just hung out and chatted with Miss RL while she ate hers.

After, we hit up the final days sale at a flower stand to snag a few more plants for our front flower beds. Raegan picked the colors: Purple, Red, and Yellow, and even helped put the big cart away when we were all done with it. Sweet, sweet girl.

I totally thought I was going to be making a third trip with Lincoln yesterday as he was just getting up from nap when I got home with Raegan, but he heard the other kids talking about playing in the kiddie pool in the backyard and instantly wanted nothing to do with ice cream. Crazy, right? But no big deal, we just saved his date for this morning when I took him to Runza for, yes, ice cream before lunch. No wonder my kids love Mama Dates so much! Who wouldn’t?! lol!

In pure awesome fashion, LT got to enjoy his free kids’ cone and I ordered some fries for us to share, so once again, a good time was had by all. Linky and I didn’t run any extra errands, but we did drive by the “Big Grilla” (read: huge inflatable gorilla outside one of the fireworks stands) and enjoyed our little morning getaway all the same.

Getting one-on-one time with each kid is pretty rare these days, so I am so glad when the opportunity/motivation comes along to make it happen. And really, even though we “ate out” three times, the grand total for all three dates (minus flower purchase) was roughly $10 which is pretty good.

Hopefully in July we can do another round or two and maybe we’ll find some non-food destinations/activities, but I don’t know — the little Welschies might have it in their brains now that MDDs are the only way to go! So more froyo and french fries could be in my future summer plans? Sounds just fine to me! 😉