Asia Date

Isn't this beautiful? I love Thailand's architecture! It is so amazing!

Last week was my week to plan our date. I had been craving Thai food so I decided we would have an Asia date. I think it was a success. Here's how I planned for it:

I looked into Dating Divas and saw their ideas for a Chinese date and then I improvised with what I had and wanted to do. I looked up links and watched videos and made lists and did a bit of shopping and got all giddy like a school girl waiting for Dan to get home after work. It was super fun! :)

So first I looked up a couple of links. I learned how to make an Origami Beating Heart by watching this tutorial:


It is a long video, but these are very detailed instructions and I found them helpful.

Then I looked up a bunch of videos on Tui Na Massage, which is a form of Chinese massage. I learned about the Neck and Shoulders technique, the pinching technique, the kneading technique, and the vibration, plucking, and rubbing techniques. There were a bunch more but I didn't have time to watch them all. It was fun to learn a bit about the Chinese culture in connection with these techniques and about how they free up the "Chi" inside all of us. Very interesting.

Then I printed about the "Wok Tok" game found on the Dating Divas Chinese Date {it's basically like Mad Gab} and cut each strip out. I also printed a Chinese Proverb saying, a Chinese Horoscope page, and a page about writing Chinese numbers 1-10. I also Looked up the Chinese character for "Love" using Google Translate.

And here's how it worked out:
The day before our date, after Dan had gone to bed, I drew the Chinese symbol for Love on the bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker. When Dan saw me the next morning after his shower he asked "what is drawn on the bathroom mirror?" I was extremely cryptic. The only thing I told him was that it is a Chinese symbol. :) I had also set out the Chinese proverb the night before so he saw that when he was eating breakfast.

For lunch we had Chow Mein {Dan always comes home for lunch}. I had never had it before so it was different for me but it was pretty yummy.

While Dan was at work in the afternoon, I set everything up. I had purchased some paper lanterns at my dollar store {though you can also get them - and some other awesome stuff that goes perfectly with this theme at Pearl River. Oriental Trading also has a lot of ideas, though I know you have to buy packages of anything you get there.}, got some chocolates {I know, I know - crazy} and Chinese take out boxes.

Then I put everything on the table and got everything set up so that Dan would see the "stuff" and hear traditional Chinese music when he came home. I put the Wok Tok game in the take out boxes and the other treats in a couple of vinyl bins.
Here is a video of the music that was playing when Dan came home from work. I find this music to be so beautiful and I love listening to it!

Cute face!

For part of our date, we had a tag-a-long, aka: Liv. But we didn't mind having her along, especially when she started chatting up a storm with the baby at the table behind us. It was pretty darn cute. I made sure she had eaten her dinner before Dan came home so she would happy for us to go out.

We went to Original Thai for dinner.

Thai fried rice

Pad Thai

Spring Rolls - Amazing!

I had Thai fried rice and Dan had Pad Thai. We also got some Spring Rolls for an appetizer. These are sooo yummy! I told Dan that the next time I go there, I'm just going to order appetizers for my meal, forget the entree!
After dinner we went back home and we practiced writing Chinese numbers and the symbol for our individual

Example of Chinese Horoscope

Chinese birth year. I gotta say, writing Chinese characters is really tough! But we sure gave it our best effort!

This was our attempt at writing Chinese numbers.

Then we played a little of Wok Tok and laughed like crazy before we took a slight "intermission" in our date to put Livie to bed. While we were feeding her her bottle for bedtime, we had a race to see who could complete a Sudoku puzzle first. Dan beat me by a mile. He actually had to help me solve mine 'cuz I couldn't figure it out!
Once Dan had proven that he does have the best mind, we tried some Tui Na massage techniques. The videos made it look easy but it wasn't as easy as it appeared! I couldn't stop laughing at one point because trying to figure out what the poor guy was saying and then trying to accomplish it ourselves was an adventure. But I sure had fun. Our final activity for the evening was to watch "Karate Kid" with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. It was a good movie, though impossibly long. We ate our yummy snacks while we watched the movie.

It was a fun time and we both really enjoyed it. We didn't get around to making our own origami beating hearts, but that's okay. Some other day. I was also going to have us both make "faux" kimonos out of sheets and sashes, but decided we already had enough to do. {As may be obvious to you at this point, I had to call this our "Asia" date night because we had Thai food, played Sudoku (Japanese, I think), and learned some Chinese characters and techniques. Just had to clarify.}