Have your plans ever gotten canceled at the last. possible. second?

You’ve been looking forward to something all week…

You’re dressed. Ready to go. And then… boom 💥

That was us last weekend.

Saturday night is our night. We’ve made date night a weekly tradition — one little investment in our marriage at a time.

Disclaimer: We really LOVE being with our kids.

But after a long week of deadlines, diapers and dinnertime negotiations (“just three more bites!”) we very much look forward to a few hours of adult conversation… at a normal volume, with no interruptions 😅

No one to cut up food for.

No one arguing over who gets to blow out the candle.

And an entire meal without a single animal fact 🤣

Three hours to just be us 🥹

Or so we thought.

Until our sweet teenage babysitter texted. Car trouble 😬 She wasn’t going to be able make it.

Date night was cancelled.

We looked at each other, trying to think on our feet how to save the night and said something we’ve literally never said before:

“Let’s go on a FAMILY date night.”

(AKA let’s take our three tiny humans to a restaurant on purpose)

Now listen… we know some of you are much braver souls.

But we’ve been parents for over seven years — and we’ve taken all three kids out to a restaurant exactly once. Uno. A single time.

And for good reason.

We eat every meal at home (except for date night). Because honestly?

Paying premium prices for food our kids will take three bites of… after we spend 20–30 minutes trying to keep them well-behaved and seated with no food in sight?

Not our idea of a good time.

(Plus, eating at home is better for our sanity, our wallets and our waistlines — triple win 💪)

So while taking kids out to eat might not be anything special to most people…

To us, this was an ADVENTURE.

And even though we were bummed about date night getting cancelled…

We reframed it.

Instead of making the night about us, we made it about teaching them.

We practiced…

🚪 Holding the door for others
📖 Ordering for yourself at the counter
🤝 Looking people in the eye and saying “May I please…”
🙏 Waiting until everyone has food to eat and praying first
📱 Conversation at the table (no screens!)
🧼 Cleaning up after yourself
💛 Saying thank you (a lot)

They weren’t perfect (they’re kids), but they did SO well. We were so proud of them. And honestly?

It ended up being one of our favorite family memories this summer.

We celebrated with post-dinner ice cream and all shared a few scoops 🎉🍨

Because sometimes the sweetest memories are the ones you didn’t plan.

Speaking of small humans learning how to be grownups…

Our amazing neighbors “hire” our kids to feed their fish when they’re out of town — and even give them a little paycheck 🐠💰

This time, Beckett left a voice memo to “Mr. Steve” to set up a formal business meeting (his words) so they could go over expectations 😂

(A good business move, TBH… expectations are everything.)

Big bonus? They let us use their pool while they’re gone!

Which gave us the perfect opportunity to teach the kids about job perks.

(“Becks, this job comes with benefits.” 👌)

We were extra grateful for it on such a hot week! 🔥

In a new development, Jordan got his own pair of goggles.

But not just one pair of goggles….

A three-pack of adult goggles.

From Costco.

Because, of course he did 😂

He and Beckett have been diving for rings like it’s their Olympic debut and it’s been the best.

But not everything this week was sunshine and pool floats…

Our washing machine broke 😩

(You don’t realize just how much you rely on a household appliance until it goes out)

BUT JORDAN FIXED IT! 💪

Just kidding.

He tried.

And then we called a repairman 👨‍🔧

But I was still really proud of his effort (and even more proud that he didn’t make it worse 😂)

Life’s been teaching us that the tighter we hold to the plan, the more likely we are to miss the joy.

So if something in your life falls apart this week, big or small, we hope this gives you permission to loosen your grip a little.

Because maybe the real win isn’t everything going perfectly.

It’s learning how to find joy in the Plan B.

Here’s to letting go of our expectations and embracing what’s right in front of us.