True confession time. We did this last year. As in, this idea is recycled. Or upcycled if you want to be different. Many of you asked in the original post for some feedback on how it went. You know what, y’all? It was really fun! While we can’t remember the exact final scores (we totally won, though, duh.), we know that it led to a trip down memory lane for both couples. It was nice to reminisce about the good old days before kids and laundry and broken toasters took over our lives!

Raise your hand if your partner rocks Valentine’s Day!

Wait a minute, y’all, that looks like a lot of hands up out there…wow, that’s impressive!!

Oh, you were just stretching? So, we don’t need to go cry in a corner because we are the only ones who don’t have the world’s most romantic mates? Whew.

Listen, we are aware of the many ways our hubbies complete us and make our lives better. And we will be sure to tell them all of those ways in their mushy, poetic, just right Hallmark message greeting cards this Thursday. (As long as we have time to go to Hallmark on Wednesday).

But is that really enough? Can’t we do more to celebrate this special day dedicated solely to love?

Let’s just say that we decided to get creative, because when we broached the subject of making this Valentine’s Day special with our hubbies, we were met with a bit less enthusiasm than we had been hoping for. We heard…

“Valentine’s Day? At a restaurant? Isn’t that the night that you can never get a reservation, and then they make me eat off a special menu so I can’t even get the food I actually want?”

“Would we even be able to get a sitter that night? And wouldn’t she want to charge like double? That sounds like it might be expensive. What day is Valentine’s Day again?”

Back off ladies, these special men are all ours! 😉

So, like with everything else in our lives, we have both decided to take matters into our own hands and plan an at-home, totally affordable, hopefully romantic, evening after the kids are in bed!

In order to set the scene, we feel like there must be a good meal. Since we know we’d feel bitter and hostile if we had to do all the work ourselves (and that doesn’t lend itself to romance), we have told our hubbies that they are in charge of what we eat for this special date night. It’s all theirs! Depending on how late they leave the office and how long the line is at the grocery store, we are probably looking at Domino’s Pizza. Hope they don’t forget the garlic knots!

Since we, however, are in charge of dessert, we have been combing the interwebs for all the best recipes. This one left us drooling onto our keyboards, so count on this being served!

But, dinner and dessert didn’t seem like quite enough. I mean we can eat at home in front of the TV with our men any night of the year.

Thanks to our friend Sheri and a long car ride back from the beach, we came up with a way to really spice things up this year! We came up with a game that can be played with our mates that should inspire romance! And no, for the men reading, it is NOT called strip poker.

It is more of a trip down memory lane style game. We thought of questions to answer “Newlywed Game” style that would invite shared conversations about all the reasons why we love each other. We’re writing the questions down in advance and answering at the same time to see how closely our answers match.

Here are some sample questions we will be using:

Where was your first date? This should be an easy one, right? We know they might be dubious about the game, so we’ve got to start off with a simple question to inspire confidence in the whole process!

Favorite Take-out and your mate’s order? Chances are this will be an easy one, too, since we will most likely be eating it as we play!

Best thing your partner cooks? We admit this will be a tough one for our men. It will be a reach for them to say anything other than, “Any meal that doesn’t have us reaching for the fire extinguisher works for us”. It will be fun seeing them try, though!

What was the first trip you took together? Who doesn’t love remembering the good old days of having enough money, time, and energy to travel? (You know, before kids).

What is your dream vacation? Okay, we admit this one could be depressing if you suspect you’re never actually going to be able to get to that beautiful beach in Fiji, but both of us already have dream vacations in mind that are not out of the realm of possibility. This seems like the perfect way to get them on the guys’ radar.

Who is better at handling money?: If our answers match up on this one, we’re immediately putting that person in charge of creating and maintaining the dream vacation fund!

What detail at the wedding did not go as planned? We know there at least one thing that happens on every wedding day that could have made the highlight reel of America’s Funniest Home video, right? Ours are no exception.

What song reminds you of your spouse? We hope they tread lightly here because no wife wants to hear that “Baby Got Back” immediately brings her to mind!

What was the first thing you noticed about your spouse? Was it his sparkling blue eyes or his early 90’s popped collar?

What one item of clothing would you like your mate to eliminate from their wardrobe? Oh dear, this could get interesting. Needless to say, our hubbies have many items to choose from in our closets! And actually, we can think of quite a few things from their closets, as well! (Nobody needs a road cone orange t-shirt. Just sayin’.)

What is the best way you have been influenced/changed by being together? This will have us ending on a high note for sure. Our guys really have brought the best out in us…if you think we’re crazy now, you should have seen what we were like before!

Have you done this sort of question game with your partner? What other questions would *you* add to our list?