Date Night Ideas: How Laughter Helps Your Heart

This week, we tried to come up with ideas to help you share some laughter or to help you get physically active together, both of which can improve your heart!

We've got a little bit of everything in this week's group of date night ideas, and we are DOUBLE DARING you to do at least one of them! That means you HAVE to. That's the rules of double daring! 🤣

Spend some time together and strengthen your heart, both emotionally and physiologically, through laughter!

Did you miss the article about how laughter can help your heart? Click below to read.

DATE NIGHT IN IDEA: I HEART COOKIES

What to do: With your partner, search for a new cookie recipe online; the wackier, the better!

Find a flavor that speaks to you and is a good representation of your relationship. For example, if you are a spicy couple, find a "spice cookie" recipe. If you both share a lot of the same interests, maybe choose a quadruple chip cookie recipe. If you both are complete opposites, find a cookie with two flavors in one (half oatmeal raisin, half double chocolate chip). Get creative!

Once you have found your recipe, go to the store, and collect all the ingredients. Choose a night to make them together. Open up a bottle of wine and get to baking!

We do have one challenge for you, though. Each cookie you make must be shaped like a heart, and you may NOT use a cookie cutter! You must shape each heart cookie by hand!

Once the cookies are done baking, find the "best" heart cookie you both made and send us a picture of it on Instagram (@cratedwithlove).

If you want an extra challenge, try shaping your cookies like the letters in your partner's first name. Let's see who can create the best cookie name!

Why are we doing this? Baking cookies together is an easy (and delicious) way to spend some quality time. Not only that, you are both creating something that is a representation of your relationship, requiring you to think about your relationship on a deeper level.

Lastly, we hope you both can share a few laughs when you see how amazing your heart cookies look (even if they are blob-like)!

DATE NIGHT OUT IDEA: DOUBLES IF YOU DARE

What to do: This date night idea isn't an idea as much as it is a challenge. This week, we talked about how laughter is good for your heart. So, we want to challenge you to find another activity to strengthen your heart together!

Find some sort of couple's exercise activity to do together (we've helped you out with a list below). Get your heart pumping while spending some quality time together. Here are a few ideas for you:

- Go Dancing or Take a Dance Class
- Play Tennis, Doubles Against Another Couple
- Create Your Own Workout Circuit at the Park
- Go on a Hike Through the Forest
- Play One-on-One Basketball
- Hit the Batting Cages
- Spend a Day Swimming at the Beach
- Play Soccer with Each Other

Why are we doing this? Exercising is good for your heart and can put you in a happy mood. It's also an opportunity for you and your partner to connect and motivate each other. Working out together can not only make you healthier, it allows you to spend time with each other while keeping one another accountable.

Can you work out or find one physical activity to do with your partner each week?

$5 DATE NIGHT IDEA: MEMORY MIXTURES

What to do: Have you each grab a piece of paper and a pen. Rip your paper into 30 strips. On 10 of those strips, write down an adjective that describes a memory you have of your relationship. For example, if during your first kiss you felt nervous, write nervous on one of the strips. If your last vacation together was somewhere tropical, write tropical on one of the strips. Come up with ten different adjectives.

On ten separate strips, write a person or thing that has some significance to your relationship. Keeping the examples above, if your first kiss was after watching Titanic, you might put Leonardo DiCaprio. Or, if on your first vacation you remember seeing a sea turtle in the water, write turtle on one of the strips.

On the last ten strips, write down an action word or phrase having to do with an event in your past. If you remember eating popcorn during Titanic before your first kiss, you might put eating popcorn. Or, if on your last vacation you both went snorkeling, write snorkeling.

Fold up all the strips and place the adjectives in one bowl, all the person/thing strips in another, and the action strips in their own bowl. Mix them up, and then have you each pick three from each bowl.

Starting with the first scenario below, pick one adjective strip, one person/thing strip, and one action strip for each of you. Out of both of your answers, decide together who has the best or most accurate solution. As an example, for the first one, you might use nervous (adjective), turtle (person/thing), and eating popcorn (action). So the full sentence would be: During our first kiss, I felt like a nervous turtle eating popcorn.

Discard the strips you used and draw three more to replace them. Then, move on to the following scenario. Keep track of who has the best answers for each question. The person with the most rounds won gets to take that $5 and pick out a movie to rent for you both.

1. During our first kiss, I felt like a(n)…

2. I knew I would fall in love with you because you remind me of a(n)…

3. Whenever you tell me how special I am, it makes me feel like a(n)…

4. I can tell when you are upset because you look like a(n)…

5. This morning, you woke up like a(n)…

6. Whenever we go shopping, you act like a(n)…

7. My favorite memory of us is when you were a(n)…

8. When we cuddle, I feel like a(n)…

9. I can tell you are nervous when you act like a(n)…

10. My pet peeve is when you act as if you were a(n)…

For even more fun, come with more words to add to your bowl and play again. Or, come up with your own scenarios!

Why are we doing this? This activity is super easy and can lead to some great laughs, which we've already seen to be beneficial not only to your relationship but to your personal health as well.

This game also gives you a chance to reminisce on memories you have with your partner. You can share which memories mean the most to you while seeing which ones stand out to your partner.