Date night!

Before we got married Miles and I decided to make every Friday night a date night, taking turns to plan the dates. We've been pretty consistent with it, and have probably kept Redbox in business, but with Colban's arrival it's been a little trickier. First of all, we're both ready for bed at eight thirty or nine, and second of all, we've been so busy between work, callings and keeping Colban fed, changed, and rested that we haven't had energy to go out much. I think we had some grocery store dates and a couple afternoon Redbox runs :)

Anyway, a while back I saw an idea on Pinterest and knew it was right up Miles's alley. I finally remembered to get mini marshmallows, and he was in suspense all day about what we might be doing with them. I was so surprised he didn't guess it, but it made it all the more fun.

Marshmallow tower building contest!

To make it a little sweeter, we set a prize for the tallest tower: sleeping in while the loser took the next morning's 5 am diaper change. We suddenly both became fiercely competitive. Miles wanted a time limit and rules, so we made it until Colban woke from his nap, and had only 50 marshmallows each. Toothpicks were unlimited. ..."and rule number four: no cheating"(name that movie!)

Here's where it made me laugh to see our personalities really come out. I was wildly stabbing marshmallows together as fast as I could and throwing together a building right away(get'er done!), while Miles carefully stuck his toothpicks in all at the same angle and spot in each marshmallow and spent minutes just looking at his budding tower to see how to make it more structurally sound. The result?

I wiiiiiiin! 

Really, Colban saved me by waking up in the nick of time, because my tower had collapsed and I had just succeeded in propping it up in any way possible and adding a "safety spire" on top. I really couldn't have built it any taller, though. If Miles had had a little more time(or his own safety spire) he would have creamed me. To put things more in perspective, the pile you see behind Miles's tower is how many marshmallows he still had left to build with. I had four.

A close-up of my masterpiece. It started out as a bunch of stacked cubes, until Colban kept napping and I was forced to make it taller...and then it collapsed and kind of turned into a tumbleweed

He was so sad. Look at the perfect angles and structure on that thing!
You could pick it up and move it with one finger--it was so strong!
Mine, on the other hand, was propped up by toothpicks like a little shanty

This is why I don't usually help Miles with his boat. Winner!

 It was a really fun and inexpensive date night--both mini marshmallows and toothpicks are only a dollar, and we had tons of both left over. We also think this would be a fun group date, and now Miles says he's discovered the optimal structure for marshmallow towers, so watch out!