Was it for her Birthday? That was the sort of thing that my mum did for me when I was a kid, movie then dinner. I loved it.
No, it was not for her birthday. We try to do things like this with her a lot, but sometimes we can't because of her behavior.
Glad she behaved well for you. Reward her with another fun outing while things are good.
It is not my daughter who causes trouble - it is my son who prevents us from doing fun things. Some things overload him like crazy. A while back we went to a museum exhibit and it fascinated him (bored my daughter, but she was just whiny, not bad, really). His behavior was perfect.
Our next outing was a simple picnic in a park and even though he seemed to love it at the time, he was freaked out about it for days!
Count the good days in "CAPITAL NUMBERS!"
Yes, that's a really good idea.
We took her for a walk to the ice cream store late this morning but unfortunately it was still closed, so we walked on to the grocery store and bought ice cream bars there instead.
She still behaved very well, even with the unexpected change to our plans.
Great.
My mistake was that I waited too long to follow up and the picnic failed. We should have done it the next day or something, instead of waiting until the week end.
I wanted to have my wife with us on the picnic, all together as a family. It doesn't work to try and force grown up concerns on a child.
One of the ways I try to prolong a fun event is by getting them to re-tell the story of the day. They both have so much difficulty turning thoughts into words that I feel this exercise helps them. I also encourage them to draw a scene or two from the day's activities and write on the back a short note about something that made them laugh. (Yes, I milk the hell out of the good days!)
It's part of the routine, now.