Advent Calendars

Something I started last Christmas was an Advent Calendar. Some friends on facebook wrote about doing one and it sounded like such a great idea so I did my own. Last year I made the Cone-iferous Advent Calendar from Family Fun. 

I've been searching the Internet for more neat ideas to make a new one this year and I came across these websites with some great ideas. All Things Beautiful, Tip Junkie, Rubber Road Adventures. I don't have much time to get to creative so I plan to keep it simple. Not entirely sure yet, but I think I am just going to get some holiday colored envelopes and string them up using clothes pins. I'll post pictures when I am done.

How does this tie into Friday Family Nights? Well under each day I placed a piece of paper with what exciting thing I had planned for that day. I also hid little toys such as silly bands or candy under about 6 of the days. This took a little planning so at the beginning of December I pulled out my calendar and made sure every Friday Night was a fun family event. On the other days if there was something already on the calendar, such as a party then I just used that event. I also made sure I made time for the traditions we always do together or that I have always wanted to start such as letting them buy toys for Toys For Tots. Before I knew it my entire calendar was filled. Below is the list I used from last year. At least this year I'll have something to start with.

I know how quickly December comes and goes and as parents we have so many things we would like to do with our kids during the entire month just to create long lasting memories, but if you are like me January comes and I only crossed off a few of the things. So by creating an Advent Calendar you have already scheduled the entire month...leaving December with NO REGRETS!!! I think it is just a bonus that the kids can't wait to open the calendar each morning. I would love feedback on some of the traditions you have with your kids that you ALWAYS make time for during the Holidays.


1 Laugh uncontrollably at the dinner table
2 Build an advent forest
3 Go Christmas shopping for baby brothers
4 Listen to Christmas music
5 Write a wish list to Santa
6 Donate all your old toys to charity
7 Write a letter to Grammy and Mimi
8 Go to library and check out any books/music/video or games
9 Shop for Toys For Tots
10 Discovery Science Center's Christmas Party
11 Swimming in Papa's hot tub
12 Build a fort and read books inside
13 Do a Christmas craft
14 Read stories about Christmas
15 Drop off Toys For Tots gifts
16 Watch favorite Christmas movie with popcorn
17 Take the train to visit Santa
18 Breakfast with Santa
19 Christmas baking
20 Happy Birthday today you are 7 years old! What do you want to do?
21 Put together a secret Santa basket
22 Deliver your secret Santa basket
23 Go to Nativity at United Methodist
24 Drive around to look at Christmas light



Here's my finished product! Kept it cheap and simple. Bought small, red paper bags, few pieces of Christmasy paper, tiny clothes pins and a roll of Christmas ribbon. I printed out the numbers on my computer, used a couple of circle punches to cut out the paper and then just taped it all together. The paper bag is just big enough for a message. I used the above messages for most of the days and added in a few new ones. If that day I had a small toy or treat I wrote on the back of the message a clue of where to find it. They will have fun hunting!

Bowling

Ok this was a lot of work with two toddlers, but everyone had fun. It definately gets checked off the list of "Done That with 2 sets of twins". I think Dad said it best when he described it as 10 minutes of hard work for 10 seconds of utter cuteness. The babies were so incredibly cute pushing the bowling ball down the cheater ramp, but what was even more cute and impressive were the two 7 year olds who got up to help them EVERY time it was the babies turn.

For mom, keeping track of two toddlers in a bowling alley does nothing for her bowling score, but the big boys loved that they beat their mom. I kind of wish I had the bumper rails up on my turn as well.

I'm looking forward to when the babies are older and the six of us go bowling for real together. That will definately be some fun memories, but this Family Night will still never be forgotten by me.

Be sure to reserve your lane for bowling ahead of time...especially on a Friday Night!

Geo Trax

I love when a cleaning project opens doors to a fun Family Night. Last weekend we cleaned out our garage and added more shelving to make room for all the stuff a large family can collect in a small house. While cleaning the boys found their huge collection of Geo Trax up in the rafters. Can't remember when we put them away, but I remember we were thinking way in advance and decided to keep them for our grandchildren. That was obviously before set number two came along.

The boys were begging to play with them, but we kept insisting the garge had to be finished before we would bring them down. So that is how we came up with last Friday's Family Night.

 

 We pulled the car out of the garage and the entire family built a huge city and train tracks. We let the kids keep it up all weekend long. This was a smart idea on our part since they spent the entire weekend in the garage happy and occupied. When the big boys were ready to build a new track they would let the babies out to take care of demolition. Then the niehgbor kids would help them create a bigger and better track.

I'm sure most of you have a toy or game that has been pushed to the back of the shelve or put into the attic and forgotten about. Pull it out! It will make for a GREAT Family Night!

Night Walk and frozen yogurt

This last Friday Night was one of those nights we did not have a plan. We all talked about what we wanted to do for Family Night at the dinner table. It was decided upon to take a nice long walk to Golden Spoon for some frozen yogurt. The boys all got in their jammies and we headed out in the dark with our flashlights. So maybe you can say it was a modified Pajama Run.

The walk itself from our house to Golden spoon is about 2 miles. On the way we played a version of Geography. Instead of naming places we named foods. So someone would start by saying a food like "banana's" the next person has to name a food that starts with "s" which is the last letter of bananas and continue. This is a good way to distract your kids from the long walk.

We enjoyed some frozen yogurt together and then walked the 2 miles back home. This time we played the same game, but had to name different animals.

So if you ever get to Family Night without an idea. Put on your walking shoes and grab some flashlights and take a walk together. Fresh air and exercise is always good for the whole family and you'll see how quickly everyones mood changes because of it.

Make your own Pizza night

Pizza Night is always a big hit!

It is pretty simple, I help the kids roll out the dough and then let them build it however they want with any ingredients they want.

But it is desert that they all really enjoy making and eating. We make a pizza desert. This particular pizza is just chocolate and marshmellows, but you can get pretty creative with desert as well. Peanut butter, fruit, nuts, pretzels, coconut and candy. That is just a few toppings that came to mind.

We usually throw in a movie or board games between dinner and desert, but it is the pizza making that really puts a smile on my families face.

So make your next Family Night a Pizza Night

Boxing match

I found these inflatable boxing gloves on clearance quite some time ago and the big boys have been iching to use them. So this last Friday Night was a Barna Boxing match. We took turns pounding eachother silly. Even the little boys got into the fun.

Ok so I must admit it was quite satisfying punching my big boys. I know you know what I'm talking about.

Eventually we were tired of being beat up so the fun turned into a game of freeze tag. Now that is a good way to add in an extra cardio workout during your day. Especially with fast 7 1/2 year olds.

Whatever night you decide to have as family night go out and smack eachother around all in the name of FUN!

Night Walk and Pillow Fights

When I asked Wesley what his favorite family night was he said he really loved the night we had a pillow fight.

Keeping it simple, cheap and easy!!!
This particular Friday Night we did not have a plan of what we were going to do. So after dinner we asked the boys if they had any ideas and one of them suggested a pillow fight and the rest of us thought that was a fantastic idea.

Considering the night was still young we decided to take a night walk together around the neighborhood first. The whole family put on their matching lighted visors and headed out the door.  We looked ridiculously cute. Can you just imagine 8 beady eyes walking down the street.

http://www.coolergadgets.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=45&products_id=169

Got home and spent an hour on mom and dads bed having a good old fashioned pillow fight. Didn't take long to tire us all out so we ended the night snuggled in bed telling silly stories. One would start the story and then pass it on to the next person to continue...and so on. This had us all busting up laughing.

Time well spent and didn't cost us any money! This was a few years ago and it is Wesley's favorite. So if you havn't had a pillow fight lately with your kids....plan one for your next Family Night!!!! Your kids will remember it forever!!!

Pajama Run

I really wish I had thought to either photograph or videa tape this particular family night. From now on my cameras will be charged and ready each Friday night.

I'm going to get back to the Pajama Run part a little later. It is the exciting part to our Family night, but it doesn't happen until after everyone is in bed. This works best with little kids that you can convince to go to bed at a decent hour.

So on this particular day we started our Family Night with building a tent or some might call it a fort in our living room. We emptied our linen closet of all sheets and blankets and together built the biggest tent we could. It was big enough for all of us to play inside. This in itself is a great family night, but it is about to get better.

The kids got to sleep in their tent, which they were so excited about. Mom and Dad pretended to go to bed as well while we waited for them to fall asleep. We turned on the lights and yelled "pajama run". Being that this was our first ever Pajama Run they were quite confused, especially when we asked them to put their shoes on and get in the car. It wasn't until we pulled up to a local ice cream shop did they finally get what we were doing. They were so excited to be woken up for ice cream. Now they know what a Pajama Run is and look forward to that wake up call once every summer.

When I asked the kids what their favorite Family Night was this was Garrin's choice. Stay tuned to find out what Wesley's favorite was.

Beach time fun

This was one of my favorite family nights that we just threw together at the last minute. Since we were planning to go to the beach all day Saturday we decided to build sailboats together on Friday night. We just used whatever we could find around the house to make it float and to make it look like a boat. The boys designed their boats by themselves and we just helped put it all together. But the most fun was the next day. The boys couldn't wait to launch their boats into the ocean to see if they would float. It was at least 2 hours of entertainment.

The unplanned nights sometimes are our favorites. It is amazing what creative ideas our family comes up with at the last minute.

Our first ever Family Night

It is not hard to remember what our very first Family Night was. We had so much fun together. We had just received two of these ice cream balls for Christmas and it was the perfect start to a new tradition.



http://www.icecreamrevolution.com/

I have seen these ice cream balls in many different stores like Target, but I just noticed you can get them on Amazon too.

Here's how it works. The ball comes with recipe's and since we had 2 balls to roll around we tried 2 different recipe's. You fill the inner tube with all the ice cream ingredients and then fill the rest of the ball with ice and salt. Here comes the fun part...roll the ball back and forth to each other. Every once in a while we would pick it up and shake it around to help the process. About 10 minutes of playing with the ball you have to stir the ice cream and then toss the ball around again for another 10 minutes.

Once your done playing with the ball you have ice cream that has been churned and frozen and ready to share with the whole family.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!