A good tip for new (or rather any parent) is: When someone offers to watch your kid(s) for the night, you just smile and say "thank you". Try not to run or trip on your way out from your excitement though. Desperation for some much needed alone time makes you look.... well... is there any other way to say it? Desperate. 

Since moving back to the states, I've been lucky to have my mother come visit not once, but TWICE! This last time she was kind enough to offer my husband and I a night to just go out and enjoy a few kid free hours. When date nights are rare, you want to make sure what you do is either: completely practical and/or something you can't do with the kids. So my first thoughts were... we either go baby stuff shopping without kids or we do something new. Thank goodness we decided to do the latter. 

For our night of kidless fun we decided to go to Wine and Design in Stafford, VA. 

Before we get started, let me first tell you that I made the decision to go there without consulting my husband. So call it pregnancy brain if you will or just a crazy lapse in judgement, but for someone reason I just assumed this was the perfect date night thing to do. While it was fun, I didn't realize that my husband would be the only man there and we probably seemed a little silly among a plethora of wine drinking "girlfriends."  Good thing my hubby is a good sport and didn't even think twice about putting on an apron and painting the evening away with his very pregnant wife. 


So if you've never been to Wine and Design before (or any other wine and painting type of class) let me just give you a small run down of what they do. These type of classes are set up so that in one evening you will complete a work of art that is broken down for you in baby-steps by your class instructor. At our class, our masterpiece was already outlined for us and we were given all of the supplies to finish our "lovebirds" painting. I won't go too deep in to each step of our paintings creation, but I can tell you that our instructor was very patient and gave everyone plenty of time to paint and to be creative. 



I do, however, have a few tips for anyone doing this for the first time.

1. Don't get too boxed in to thinking your painting has to be perfect! Every painting comes out different. I mean we must have had 12 people in our class and I don't think any of our paintings looked alike in the end. Think of it as a family of paintings: You might have similar features, but in the end everyone is a little different. 

2. Snap a few pics of your painting when your done. That little boggier will look like a million bucks in a fancy full filtered Instagram photo and will make you super proud of what you've just done. Slap a few hashtags on that baby and tag your painting partner in crime and I guarantee you all of your friends will become insta-jealous of what an awesome evening you just had. 

3. Lastly, do not... I repeat DO NOT.... get water to drink and accidentally wash your paint brush in your water. Your night will not end well. Just a tip from experience. 



Conclusion: Wine and Design is a super cute way to spend the evening. It was an easy class and despite the fact that I'm not creative at all, I still left feeling like I was an artist. Our instructor was funny and lively; the environment was relaxed; and I felt like it was something different to do for date night. I highly recommend going to a class if you want a fun, relaxing evening creating your own unique work of art! 


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