My Family Rocks! Sunday: Purim & Princess Bride Date Night March 2, 2013

In this Post: The Hubby hosts a movie themed date night with The Princess Bride (wanna peanut?), Purim celebrations, & spring has sprung here…whether it wants to or not! Wizard of Oz links at the end.

Hello dear ones! I hope you’re having a lovely Sunday. I will be posting back to back posts out of necessity and taking a short blogging break.  A couple Sundays back, I shared with you The Dating Divas website and how the hubby and I have started having regular date nights every other week. I printed out the ideas and put them in an old popcorn bucket.

This past week Chris chose The Princess Bride date night. Idea found at this link:

http://www.thedatingdivas.com/just-the-two-of-us/the-princess-bride/

The hubby did not decorate but the house was already looking royal because of Purim. I found that incense is messy and way too smelly. I just thought it felt Persian.

So I found the lovely hanging flowers (both pink and purple) at Michael’s Craft Store….along with the turquoise bird cage, fake birds, and mango candle. Also if you click on the pic you will see a heart slate where I wrote in chalk “Chris + Amber=4-ever”.  I love this bird cage so much that in went in my bedroom after Purim. Hurry they may still be on sale :).

Pink and Purple streamers made the place feel royal. Also, floating candles and a turquoise vase with exotic fake flowers. I got those flowers are the Dollar Tree can you believe it!

You can see the mood in this pic without the flash turned on…

Now while my kitchen looked beautiful, my craft room looked like this….I had several projects underway.

The hubby spent a good bit of the night cooking. We had grilled chicken with potatoes and carrots and a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

For dessert we had peanut butter cups. I was Princess Buttercup for the night and Chris constantly answered me “as you wish”.  I wore my new blue dress from Target. Dang these people should sponsor me lol. Hear that Dollar Tree, Michael’s, & Target…..I need money for advertising 😉 he he he.

Anywho, we had fun and after the movie we acted out a few movie quotes. The Princess Bride is hilarious and it’s appealing to guys and gals. Enjoy a few lines….

Inigo Montoya: That Vizzini, he can *fuss*.
Fezzik: Fuss, fuss… I think he like to scream at *us*.
Inigo Montoya: Probably he means no *harm*.
Fezzik: He’s really very short on *charm*.
Inigo Montoya: You have a great gift for rhyme.
Fezzik: Yes, yes, some of the time.
Vizzini: Enough of that.
Inigo Montoya: Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?
Fezzik: If there are, we all be dead.
Vizzini: No more rhymes now, I mean it.
Fezzik: Anybody want a peanut?
Vizzini: DYEEAAHHHHHH.

~Quotes from The Princess Bride

So I thought this cardboard chandelier would look nice but it fell. So I taped it up inside our cardboard play house with the dolls.

Saturday night (a week ago) we began Purim preparations. I showed you a bit of that on my Crafty Monday post. Here are the Haman ears/hats (strawberry filled and brownie filled).

Our paper plate Haman ears decorated the cabinet doors.

Voila! The Haman ears on Purim morning :).

For dinner I decided to practice a couple of Irish recipes that I’ll be doing when I host our homeschool group for St. Patty’s Day.

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Beef Stew– was supposed to be lamb but not many people seem to want lamb. It tastes better than it looks. It has white wine in it and we served it over rice.

Purim noisemakers (green guy is Haman & pink girl is Esther), the puppets, the golden scepter, Esther’s crown, and a Purim game called “Dancing Dreidels”.

My family enjoying the meal.

Mom (aka Nana) was Queen Esther and Michael was King Ahasuerus or Xerxes.

As I read the Bible story of Esther we sort of acted it out. We used our noisemakers whenever I said Haman or Mordecai. We booed for Haman and cheered for Mordecai.

Here’s Michael crowning his queen.

Michael as King Ahasuerus.

The sparkling green cardboard doors are actually for another party but I thought they looked royal. It worked for Queen Esther’s big entrance.

It is against the law to approach the King without being summoned but thankfully the King extends his scepter of mercy.

Kim (Grandad) and one of our homemade noise makers.

Can you guess who Kim is? He’s Haman begging Queen Esther for his life. Don’t feel sorry for the dude. He was like an ancient Hitler.

The King thinks Haman is assaulting his wife.

Off to the gallows with ya!

Nana and Michael acted out what they had learned with the stick puppets and file folder stage. It was quite funny as they mixed movie quotes from The Wizard of Oz and Lord of the Rings!

Well, after Purim I was ready to decorate for Easter. We are already doing Lent devotions each night though our sad Lent tree has no ornaments. I can’t keep up with all these holidays and such.  I guess the party bug bit me during our Time Machine unit in homeschool. I can’t get enough of parties!

I brought out our paper resurrection set that we made last year.

Our kitchen window is super springy though Winter doesn’t want to leave us. It snowed for 45 seconds today but I missed it :(.

You can see our leprechaun on the left and our Easter egg tree on the right. Click on the pic and you can see the pom pom Easter bunnies. One has the cutest mini basket.  We’ve also started growing three leaf clovers. LOL I’m not confused. Everything decided to happen in March! 🙂

Reminder: Oz the great and Powerful comes out next weekend. You still have time to read at least one of the books before it comes out. You can get all 14 Wizard of Oz books by Frank Baum on Kindle here:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Wizard-Collection-Contents-ebook/dp/B003TU29GQ/

It’s only 95 cents! I’ve been reading several chapters to Michael every night. We’ve also watched several of the movies. Here are some movie ideas for you but I’ll have more Oz info later *wink* wink*.

The Wizard of Oz (the first movie and sooo different from the book), Return to Oz (this is more like the books), The Wiz (Michael Jackson was the scarecrow and Dianna Ross , Dorothy! It’s on Netflix), The Wizard of Ha’s (Veggie Tales), & Tin Man (Oz in the future. Also on Netflix).

For party ideas check out my Pinterest link. Remember email subscribers to come to my blog to see the links.

Wizard of Oz on Pinterest

Purim on Pinterest

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

My Family Rocks! Sunday: Date Night with My Hero March 5, 2012

Well, I had hoped to have this posted before midnight but surprise surprise here it is technically Monday. Thank you for your patience friends :).  Last night (errr Saturday night), my hubby and I had a wonderful date night. Dates are becoming rarer. I have only one babysitter (my mom) and dates can be expensive too. But I’m realizing it is very important to keep “dating” my husband. Sometimes life knocks us down and it seems alright to settle for a mediocre relationship……to just go with the flow…..even if it is taking us further from our spouse. In those times we should shake ourselves and get up and fight for our beautiful marriage. It is never good to settle. Women need romance…..we need to feel loved. Men need respect. And both spouses need to be physically intimate. Marriage is tough and it takes alot of work but it is SO worth it. If we don’t deposit into the love bank daily we’re going to become bankrupt quick. If we neglect our Love fern…it’ll die 😉

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So I’ve been trying to find creative ways to make our dates count and also to make things cheaper. Going to the movies gets old after awhile. And eating out is boring if all you do is talk about the kid and finances……or your hubby stares at the TV the whole time 😉 (why do they have to have tvs in restaurants? Do we have to take the tube everywhere? Geesh). Well, we did go to a restaurant and a movie Saturday but we didn’t stare into space (after almost 8 years you run out of things to talk about…I think Chris has heard ALL my stories). I got on Pinterest before we left & checked out some date ideas. This time we discussed about a dozen questions from this list:

http://zachterry.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/50-questions-to-ask-your-spouse-on-a-date-night/

It was WONDERFUL….or S’wonderful if you’re Fred Astaire. The questions range from light (like your fav foods) to heavy (like what are your fears or how can I support you as a leader). I was surprised by a few things even on the light list. I thought I knew most everything about Chris’ likes & dislikes. I think he was surprised a few times too. We spent our whole meal focused on each other. I barely noticed the waiter coming and going. As cheezy as the idea may seem it really worked. We were like love struck teenagers when we left the restaurant.

(Our 7th Anniversary @ a garden)

We had some time before our movie so we window shopped in the mall. Then we took photo booth pictures. I can’t remember the last time we did that as a couple.

I had a romantic cd in Chris’ jeep so we could stay in the mood as we drove too. We enjoyed a movie at the dollar theater. The theater shows movies that are usually already on DVD. The price is great ($2.50 a ticket). I so hope you have a dollar theater near you. It’s perfect for those on a budget.

That loving feeling lasted all night so we were very happy with our date even if it was different than usual. It took a small amount of planning but it was worth it. Why settle for sparks when you can have fireworks? So I’m pumped for our next date. We hope to have a date night once a week. Obviously, we can’t afford to go out all the time & we do have a lil munchkin. So I found this post:

http://www.themomcrowd.com/30-ideas-for-a-date-night-at-home

I really like the theme night idea and picnicking in the living room. I remember when I had a blue dodge journey. I loved that car. It had a dvd player built in the dash. We traded it in for something not as expensive ( a minivan). Anywho, when we still had Sapphire (ok I named her too) we would watch movies in the car & pretend we were at a Drive in. Sigh……. Okay back to reality. The list has great ideas for when the kiddos are asleep.

Here’s my Pinterest so you can keep up with all the date night ideas I find: http://pinterest.com/doverette/date-ideas/

If you want to keep the home fires burning then date your spouse :). Don’t get into a rut. It IS possible to fall in love over and over again if you are willing to put in the work. Oh and the relationship is always more important than being right. If you’ve lost the love, please please seek counseling. There is NO shame in marriage counseling. Everyone has problems & there is NO perfect spouse. If you invest in your relationship then you may find the grass has always been greener in your own yard. I know for a fact that God wrote my love story. That tale is for another time but basically we saved ourselves for each other. We are each other’s one and only. So I know that if I can’t make my marriage work with Chris then it will never work with anyone. I’ve seen what affairs and porn etc can do to people. Often people find that the grass is fake on the other side & they regret leaving what God gave them.

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God truly writes the best love stories & he has kept my marriage from falling apart many times. Marriage is being attacked every day. I challenge you to be strong soldiers. I challenge you to fight for your marriage. Men be REAL men & love your woman enough to lay down your life for her. You’re not 12 yrs old anymore…so don’t act like it. Women humble yourselves so you will be exalted. Respect your man & trust him. God commands it & your man has a huge responsibility on his shoulders. He needs your support so he can become the Hero he is mean’t to be.

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I’m preaching to myself as well. I know relationships are hard. From the very beginning of our marriage the odds were against us. We’ve dealt with deployments, financial strain, infertility, illness, taking care of a sick parent, deaths in the family, major moves, several job changes, going through school, and I homeschool while he works. The first half of our marriage and relationship was mainly long distance because of the military. Now my hubby is a disabled vet going to school. We know stress and we know how it can eat at a marriage. Honestly, it is only Jesus Christ who has held us together through our hardships. I think we both would’ve jumped ship a few times if we didn’t have God convicting us & drawing us to unconditional love & respect. Now, I can truly say that I love my husband more now than when we first fell in love (as teens). I thought my hubby was awesome before but he’s truly my hero now.

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Well, God bless & Remember the High King Lives! Hold tight to your family. They are precious. ~Amber Dover

PS: Enjoy the video 🙂 Ladies this is how NOT to treat your guy lol