Couples Minute to Win It

Have you seen this game on TV?!?! If you haven't, STOP everything. Go now. Seriously. (I'll wait for you...)

I have a secret love affair with game shows. It is my dying goal in life to be on one. I'm not even kidding. (Especially Jeopardy, but I'm still working up to that one! A few years back I submitted an audition tape to the Amazing Race...obviously, I didn't make it. BOO!) Anyhow...when NBC started Minute to Win It, my husband and I got hooked. It is an awesome game where the contestant has one minute to complete random games made from household items. (Hard to explain, but just watch the videos on the website.)

After the first few episodes we decided it would be SO fun to do this as a date night. When my sis-in-law did it for a family party, I KNEW it would be hilarious for a date night.

Well, I made up the invites and sent them out to our most competitive friends.

Here is the one you can use. Copy and paste it into a Word Document, adjust it to the size you want, print, fill in the missing info, and give it to your husband and other couples.

This is more fun when you have FUN and COMPETITIVE people! I emailed the 4 other couples and asked them to come up with a team name ahead of time and to plan out their matching outfits. :)

You'll want to create a game board listing each level, the team names, and how many lives they have left. You can chose how many games/levels you want to do, but we kept it at eight. This took us about an hour and a half to do, not including dinner.

All of the games/levels are found on the website here. They give you the name, the supplies you'll need, and an explanation video - they call it a Blueprint - of how to play each game. I chose games that I thought would be fun (or funny to watch) and that could be done in couples. A few of them did end up being a single person playing, but it worked out well for us.

I taped the game board up at the park and each of the teams loved checking out the other team names. They also were curious and speculating about what each level would involve based on the name. (By the way, the names of the levels are hilarious! Whoever came up with them are very creative.)

So here are the competitors:

Bauer Power

Saturday's Warriors

One Minute Men

Bank on Us - we went all out on the team uniforms!

and for some reason I don't have a picture of team Chuck Norris. Sorry guys!

We randomly took turns on which team would start - in case there was a strategy advantage to be learned by watching. Each team had one minute to complete the task and three lives. Once each life was used up they were eliminated from the game.

Here are some shots from our Minute to Win It competition.

"The Breakfast Scramble" - Putting together a 'puzzle' of a cereal box

"This Blows" - Blowing cups off a table with the air from a balloon. Jared was sure the bigger his balloon, the better he'd do!

"Face the Cookie" - this one is HILARIOUS and should be captured with a camera! You have to move a cookie from your forehead to your mouth without touching it.

"Penny Hose" - retrieve a penny from the bottom of a panty hose leg with just your hands - not touching anything else. Way hard!

"Bite Me" - pick up 5 bags of different sizes with your teeth, without using your hands to touch the ground. The smallest one is 2 inches off the ground. This one is also good for some awesome laughs. Especially if you make the guys do it!

Thankfully my husband is as flexible as Gumby!

At the end we rewarded the Grand Prize winner and all other participants with random funny gifts from the Dollar Store - Mouthwash, a sombrero, gardening gloves, a sponge, and a giant water gun. It was almost as funny as the games themselves.

It almost fulfilled my Game Show dreams. . . almost.

POST EDIT: Look at what one of our readers did when they planned THIS date! Great job Cara, and thanks for sharing with us. We love to know when people like and use our dates.
Check out Cara's version of Couples Minute to Win It here.

The Bachelorette Premiere: Pictures as Promised!

Refer to my earlier post here for the FULL explanation of our Bachelorette Premiere ideas.  These pictures were generously shared by fellow Diva, Kristen!  She did such an awesome job of preparing for the premiere that I couldn't help but want to post the photos from her date!

All in attendance were asked to dress the part!

How fun are these chocolate covered strawberries!  Just perfect for the event.

Check out this spread!  Wine glasses, check.  Sparkling Cider, check.  The Bachelors themselves, check. Chocolate covered strawberries, check.  Candles, check.  Rose petals, check check!

Here are the cheat sheets! Thanks ABC for giving us the bachelors on paper, so we can keep track of our favorites for Ali!

Kristen is sooo clever! She had this FUN dessert idea! Ali - I say choose Roberto! ...just saying!

Notice the paper roses?  We handed these to our guests and asked them to "accept this rose" and return for next week's episode!  Same time, same place!

We would absolutely LOVE to hear about your own Bachelorette Premiere Parties!  Please email us with any photos, details, or ideas from your party!

Hubby Highlights: Jamie

The divas decided that we wanted a section on our blog where we could "highlight" the men in our lives.  I mean, they truly are the reason we started this whole thing!  :)  So - the "Hubby Highlights" will be dedicated to us talking about why we love our husbands or awesome things they may have done for us.   Basically, a celebration of the men we married.  I will jump-start it all by telling about something my husband recently did:

I came home after another exhausting day at school...to THIS:

Freshly cut roses from our back patio with the SWEETEST note from Jamie!

Here's a glimpse at some more of our beautiful flowers we get to see each day...

Such a simple act of love that made a WORLD of difference in my day!

Roses are my FAV...and Jamie knows just what to do to make me smile.

How on EARTH did I get so lucky!?!

Does Your Hubby Still "Got It"???

I was thinking about a story today that my husband told me about a few years ago.

He was riding the subway one day and kept catching glances from a girl who was sitting across the way.  He knew she was checking him out and hinting for him to come over and talk to him.  Well, of course being the amazing, LOYAL, and honest person he is - he didn't give into any of those looks.

 When he got home he told me the story and of course we just laughed about it and then he smiled and said, "It was actually nice to feel like I still 'got it', ya know what I mean."  Sure - I smiled back and then the subject changed and we went on to being the same two married people we were before the conversation happened.

So I was thinking of this story randomly today and was kind of sad.  I am not trying to make my husband feel like the HOTTIE that he still is!   So this weekend while we are doing all our Memorial Day activities, I am going to try and do things that boost his confidence and make him feel like he's 

still 'got it' !!!

Like throwing him glances across the lawn at our BBQ.  Or telling him how sexy he looks in that shirt.  Or grabbing his butt. :)

Love Story: Corie & Jared

I was sixteen years old and at the DMV with my mom. In line, two people ahead of me was the hottest guy I had ever seen in my life. I just kept staring at him.

I turned to my mom and said, "Check out that guy! He is so hot!" My mom said, "Yeah, he's cute!" I then said to my mom, "I think I will marry him!"

They called his name for pictures and I placed my name with his last name and it sounded so good! A week later I found him again at my high school! We went out that week and five years later we were married.

Good things can happen at the DMV!
 

"Sassy" Suggestion: The Penny Jar

One of our readers, Mindi, sent in a super cute idea that we thought we should pass along!  I will let her take over:

"I had a friend tell me something fun they did and I adapted it a little to be fun for me and my husband. It's a penny jar.  Every time you "have-a-little-fun-in-the-bedroom", you put a penny in your jar.  We started it with the new year and our goal is to top the number next year." 

"There's all kinds of variations, though.  If you want to put a quarter or even a dollar in you could use that money towards renting a movie or a date.  Newlyweds could start it and have it going forever to see how many "it's" happened during your marriage.  But, you could of course start it any time." 

"It's also a good code name. i.e. "I want to put a penny in our jar.  Should we put the kids to bed?" And no one would know what you were talking about!  It was a pretty simple project to do and even my husband loves the idea!   The project of making the jar itself was, as I said, pretty simple.  Just print out the saying on paper, glue it on to some other paper, cut out some ribbon and glue it on, get a flower or something and glue it on, cut out some fabric also cutting a hole in the middle for the penny slot, and twist the lid on!"  - Mindi

What a great idea, huh!  Her "code" cracks me up!  Thanks again, Mindi for sharing your "Penny Idea"!  

Let's Get Physical!

There are so many benefits to grabbing your Lovey and working out together.

• Quality time
• relieves stress
• an excuse to touch each other (not that you need one)
• adds motivation
• improves lovemaking

After getting married, it’s easy to get into a comfortable groove and let yourself go.  Exercising shows your partner that you care about improving or maintaining your physical appearance.

Working out together is a great way to help keep that initial appearance-fueled Spark alive!

Finding time to work out is hard for Jason and I.  IF I work out, I like to do it in the morning, before I get ready for the day, and him at night after work. The only day we can agree to work out together is on Saturday mornings, which isn’t always what you want to do on a Saturday morning. When we do exercise on Saturdays, we usually go down to the gym in our apartments and I hop on the treadmill while he chases the munchkin around and does weights in between, not very effective or very fun!  So I decided to take a different approach.

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Saturday morning before Jason woke, I put this on the counter where he would see it first thing.

 Let's Get Physical printout

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I let Jason sleep in, and when he woke up instead of getting out of bed, he opted for a little Saturday morning game playing on his iphone.  This was perfect!  I made yummy smoothies and presented them to him while he was still in bed.  


*These smoothies were featured on the Biggest Loser. If  it’s on the Biggest Loser than it has to be good for you right? You can find these at Albertsons for $3 which makes 2 smoothies or Costco has a pack of 5 (10 smoothies) for $10.

*Or try this recipe for a fresh-fruit smoothie.

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After enjoying our morning smoothies, we made our way out the door and instead of going down to the gym, we put our daughter in her stroller and headed over to the nearest park which is ½ a mile from our house and made for a great warm-up.

When we got to the park, it was pretty crowded with all the little leagues playing baseball, so Jason was a little leery of trying any exercises I had come up with. 

We did some 'Love Ladders' where you spread markers on the grass several yards apart, then you and your partner start at opposite ends of the markers and run from your first marker to the second marker, back to first marker, then to third marker, and back to first marker, etc, etc.... since we started at opposite ends we would pass each other and as we passed, we had to give the other a high five, or a bum smack. It was pretty funny!

We held each others feet for some 'Smoochy Sit-ups', and as we sat up we had to give each other a kiss.

I also had Jason try bench pressing me, I like to call them 'Love Lifts' which didn't work very well so he opted for 'Love Lifting' our 17lb daughter instead.

Doing pushups while your spouse adds weight by laying on your back is another way to build arm strength.

 The whole time we were doing these exercises our daughter was roaming around on the grass playing with some balls we brought or trying to get in on the exercises we were doing and laughing as we did things that looked silly to her.

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Our park has a huge path that circles it so we ran around it 3x (Jason pushing the stroller). I think it was equaled to just under 2 miles.  On our second lap I could tell Jason was getting pretty tired......ok I was too.......so I asked if he wanted to stop or go one more lap. He waited a few seconds and responded with "ONE more lap!" OK!, I thought as we continued through our third lap. It was so nice to have Jason by my side motivating me to push myself.  If I was by myself I would have gladly stopped at 1 and 1/2 laps!

*note, before you go out to exercise remember to shave your legs, armpits, that your breath smells good and you are wearing deodorant.


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If you really want to 'Heat' things up, show a little skin by shedding your shirts. My husband loves seeing a little skin so I knew this would be a great way to do it, I bought a super sexy sports bra HERE.

(P.S. For some reason the neon colors make your skin look REALLY tan!) 

Although once we saw how crowded it was at the park, we opted to keep our shirts on and keep this idea for later in our date. {wink}

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After our run we did some stretches and stayed at the park for a little Saturday morning baseball.  We chose to watch the oldest looking kids (since that game was probably most exciting) and the team's side that we sat on actually won their game!  It was fun cheering them on and having no idea who any of them were but we were happy 'we' had won.

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The cool down was the walk back to our house where I prepared a delicious Low Calorie meal,

  since we had just worked our butts off (literally)!

 (photo and recipe courtesy of My Fabulous Recipes)

1 can tuna in water
2 sweet pickles, chopped
1/2 celery stalk, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic Caesar salad dressing
salt and black pepper to taste
Sandwich Thins

As we ate, we talked about this diet I have been wanting to do for awhile but I just hadn't had the motivation to do it.  Jason was super supportive and decided to pull out the diet right then and start writing up a grocery list for it.  We ended up going grocery shopping that evening and starting the diet the very next day.   Jason committed to doing the diet with me just to help support me through the 10 days without sweets!

We also committed to making it a point to work out together at least once a week, whether it be going on a walk, bike ride, hiking, playing tennis, soccer, something that we enjoy doing together that gets our hearts pumping!

The Bachelorette Premiere Party

Oh the fun days of being a Bachelorette! Of course I would never want to be a Bachelorette again, especially after finding my most PERFECT Bachelor, but that's no reason why we can't root other Single Gals on! Go Ali! Personally, Tenley would've been my pick as the next bachelorette, but no matter who, I will still be tuning in!

I'm an avid fan of the show "The Bachelorette/Bachelor" and the premiere is tomorrow night on ABC. I thought it would be so much fun to kick off the season by watching it all go down with a big group. This group will consist of my closest girlfriends, but there are some fellow diva's who are also hosting this party as couples!

A cheap, fun, last minute way to invite people to your party is sending an Evite. There are tons of different invitation choices that suit The Bachelorette Premiere perfectly! I chose the 'red roses' option, seeing as it is so fitting. Then this gets emailed to your guests. This is what my evite says:

We are having a 'Sparkling Cider' party, to get to know our new Bachelors for this season of The Bachelorette.
*Attire: FORMAL- you will be meeting your Bachelors tonight!
*Please bring a creative dessert that centers around the Bachelorette Theme.
*RSVP: by tonight! or please call if you have questions.
Invite your Guests to wear their best FORMAL attire and to bring a dessert based around the bachelorette theme. i.e.: roses, wedding ring, cocktails.

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Don't forget your 'fancy glasses' for your drinks of choice.

I printed off Bachelor cheat sheets HERE for each guest to keep track of who they think will get a rose at the end of the night. Every week have your guests bring their cheat sheets back to keep eliminating the boys. At the end of each show give a prize to the person who gets the most right. The prizes could be a bottle of champagne or sparkling cider or even chocolate covered strawberries, yum!

During commercials have questions prepared to ask your guests. For the premiere I have questions like: 'How did you meet your spouse?' 'What was your reaction when you first met your spouse?' 'What was something you said to your spouse when you met him?'

As your guests leave present them each with a rose!! Don't forget to ask them the big question, 'Will you accept this rose' and join me for next week's episode - but in this case PLEASE don't eliminate your guests! :)

If you have single friends attending, print off actual bachelorette applications HERE and have them fill them out with envelopes, stamped and addressed all ready to be sent!

Tune in next week for photos from my Bachelorette Premiere. This will be quite the season and we would love to feature your ideas too! Sooooo if you have any pictures from your Bachelorette Premiere party that you want to share please send them in. We love seeing what other bachelorette fans are doing.

P.S.I bought rose petals at the dollar store to sprinkle around for fun decor.

Anniversary Idea "Four" You

My husband and I just celebrated our Fourth Wedding Anniversary a few days ago. It was a fabulous day, albeit low-key as he is taking finals! When he got home from school, I had this on the table:

A Chinese takeout box (but the cute kind you can buy from the craft store.) I attached the note to it that said, "So 'Four'tunate to have been married to you FOUR years!

Inside were FOUR felt fortune cookies. I made them from the tutorial here, except I made mine bigger. (You could do real fortune cookies if you wanted, but I liked the idea of felt and letting my son play with them afterwards.)

Then I typed up four different messages and placed one inside each fortune cookie.

Hope this helps give some ideas if you are happening upon your FOURTH anniversary...or 14th, 24th, 34th, 40th, etc.