Emerald City

About a month ago, my husband and I toured New York City. We had really been hoping to get tickets for "Wicked" (the broadway prequel to The Wizard of Oz). They were sold out and we even waited in line for an hour for the "lottery" tickets. No luck.

So...I thought I'd create my own production of The Wizard of Oz...using a little inspiration that has been in the back of mind since this blog began. That inspiration is from one of my favorite authors, John Bytheway and his wife, Kim who wrote What We Wish We'd Known When We Were Newlyweds. This "date" was something Kim had done for John and he wrote about it in this book.

What you'll need:

- Lots and Lots of GREEN stuff (stuff around the house or dollar store)
(plastic tablecloth, balloons, plastic plates, streamers, green plants, green sheets, towels, etc.)

- Yellow "bricks" - cut out of cardstock/construction paper
(I distressed mine with a little brown ink around the edges)

- Red socks, slippers, or anything relatively close to it
(I got lucky and found mine at the dollar store)

- Printed signs as instructions (see pics below)

- Green Food/Drink
(I just put green food coloring in Sprite, and drizzled green candy melts over plain popcorn--delicious!)

- Items for the Courage, Brain, and Heart challenges

(see below)

- The Wizard of Oz Movie
1. Have the "ruby red slippers" waiting for your love when they walk in.
2. Next to the slippers...an instruction to follow the Yellow Brick Road.
3. When they get to the end of the road (your closed door), have the next instruction to click their heels together 3 times and say, "There's no _______ (husband/wife) like ___ (your name)." example: "There's no wife like Kim."
4. After they do so, declare from inside, "YOU MAY ENTER."

5. Allow them time to adjust their eyes...(No, it's not St. Patrick's Day, hunny)
6. Eat. Drink. (be merry is a given.)
7. Just like the lion, tinman, and scarecrow....make them demonstrate/earn courage, a heart, and a brain through a set of challenges.

Courage - (example: make him suck on 2-3 Warheads (sour candy) at once).
Brain - (example: have him find 2-3 green glow-in-the-dark sticks hidden in the room..hide them well, have him search in the dark). OR any task that you can justify using his brain for.
Heart - (example: cut a heart out of construction paper, cut into simple puzzle pieces w/ a love message, have him put together to earn his "heart")

This one takes a little work and a desire to be creative. But it's totally fun if you're in a total rut and need something to mix up your dating life! Who needs to go out? After all, "there's no place like home..."