Halloween Family Night Ideas

I really enjoy when there is a holiday coming soon that we can celebrate for Family Night. Sometimes we just run out of new and exciting ideas, but for October it is like a month off from having to think about it.

Here are my top 10 ideas for what to do during the month of October to celebrate Halloween on a Family Night

1) Go visit a pumpkin patch. There are so many to choose from you can go to a new one every week. We try and do this at the begining of the month so we can pick out our pumpkins

 2) Have a science experiment night with dry ice. The kids get such a kick out playing with dry ice. The babies loved the bowl of soapy water with dry ice in it. Just google dry ice and you'll find so many things to do. Youtube is a great resource too.

3) Spend the evening making your Halloween costumes.

4) Decorate the inside and outside of the house for Halloween. Go crazy and make a haunted house in your front yard. I wish my house looked like this, but I got this picture from Good Housekeeping.

5) Halloween craft night. There are so many ideas on the internet of craft ideas you can do for Halloween. Here's a cute and easy project to do together. This craft project came from Family Fun.

6) Disneyland Halloween Party. Who wouldn't want to go trick or treating at the Happiest Place on Earth.

7) There is always a party or 2 that I have to bring treats to so I like to use our Family Night to make the treats together. Again the internet has many fun Halloween treats to make, but this is what we are doing this Friday night. Although Grammy sent us the instructions and the ingredients in the mail you can find the recipe at http://www.parents.com/

 

8) Watch a favorite Halloween movie or TV show. What about the annual playing of "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". It airs on ABC on Thursday Oct 27th at 8pm.

9) Candy Science Night. This is a good way to use up all that candy without eating it. Did you know if you leave a Skittle in water the "S" will float to the surface. Check out this website for some great candy experiements you can do. http://www.candyexperiments.com/

10) Last is ALWAYS pumpkin carving night for us!!!



St. Patricks Day

I separated this into 2 Friday Family Nights.

The first night we spent making St. Patricks Day Yard signs. I found a bunch of cute signs to print out for free from the web HERE. In fact I believe that is where I found most of my printables for all the fun things I did for St. Patricks Day. I had the boys glue the signs to some card stock and we used a hanger and taped it to the back so we can stake them into the lawn.  This particular Family Night was all about the prep job for the following Friday Night. Also to prepare for the following week I had stopped off at a party supply store and bought green streamers and gold coins. Keep reading to see why!

Friday March 16th which is the night before St. Patricks Day was the night of some REAL Family Fun! I really wish I had better pictures. First we took some time to build our own Leprechaun Trap. I had a feeling the Leprechauns were going to visit us that night and suggested to the boys to build a trap to try and catch them.

Once they were done with their trap it was finally late enough for the Barna's to be little Leprechauns of their own. The big boys each got to pick 2 houses to bring a little "LUCK" to. We piled in the car and headed off. The goal was to decorate their doorsteps and front lawns with our handmade St. Patricks Day signs and streamers and leave them a pot of gold...and do it all undetected. I'm kind of glad it took me so long to post this since some of the houses we visited that night are also followers of my blog. Now that you know the truth...don't tell your kids. Let them believe in a little magic for a while.

And as I expected, some REAL Leprechaun's did come visit us while we were sleeping. But those Leprechauns are so pesky that they got away. They ate a bunch of chocolate coins and left the wrappers right by the trap.

They also left a note for the boys to follow the colors of the rainbow in order to find their pot of gold...a basic scavenger hunt. Here's the LINK to the printables I used. 

The Boys have fun doing sneaky things to their friends. So far it seems as though they are good secret keepers. Although I believe some moms are onto us by now! I only hope they appreciate the gesture as much as we have fun doing it. The Barna's seem to find any excuse to try and put a smile on our friends faces. However, I must admit that this time around we accidentally decorated the wrong house...so we possibly put a smile on some strangers faces...who will most likely never know who decorated their house.

Valentines

Last year we started this tradition as a Family Night. We do it the Friday before Valentines Day.

I had bought small little mailboxes from the Target $1 bins. Everyone decorated their own last year with stickers. Then we sat at the table and wrote out valentines to everyone in the family and then placed them in the mailboxes. I had taken the time to print small valentines from a free printable. Just google "valentines free printables" and I'm sure you'll find many cute ones to choose from.

This year we did not need to decorate our mailboxes, but I had put all of last years valentines back in their mailboxes when I stored them for the year. It was fun to go around the table and re-read what everyone wrote to eachother last year before we started on this years cards.

As the mailboxes sat for a few days I noticed the big boys would continue to add more and more notes and small trinkets as gifts. It really was quite a surprise when we finally got to open them Valentines morning. I always make a valentines breakfast and even though it was a school day we still sat down together to eat breakfast. We took turns reading out loud what our valentines said. Sometimes 8 year old boys CAN be sweet.

There really isn't any better way to spend your time together as a family than writing love notes to eachother. So next Valentines take the time together as a family and start your own Valentines tradition.

Crayon Tshirts

The babies 2nd Birthday is coming up and we are having a Crayola themed birthday party. So I took the opportunity to make tshirts for the rest of the family as a family night activity.

I found and followed all the steps from Alphamom. It was really simple and definately cheap. you just need sandpaper, crayons, tshirt and an iron. Be sure to color your picture on the sandpaper as dark and thick as you can with your crayon. The darker and thicker the better the final product looks.

One of my 8 year olds did his best at coloring it dark, but the other didn't want to put in the effort. Then he was mad that his shirt didn't turn out very well. I have worn my shirt and washed it quite a few times since then and it has faded, but you can still see the image.


To keep the babies involved in our Family Night we just let them color on paper with crayons. Which they were more than happy to do.

So add a little color to your next Family Night and create some fun tshirts together!

Keeping it "green"

We MADE money on this 

Fun Friday Family Night!

So even though Dad and I had a plan for Friday's Family Night we played it off as if we didn't. At dinner we asked the big boys what they wanted to do for Family Night. A few ideas were tossed around but no one could make a decision. I reminded the boys that all the dishes had to be done before we could do anything anyway and so to keep thinking about it while they worked.

The dishes were done and the babies had just gotten out of the bath and dressed. I had one 8 year old zoning out on his Ipod touch on the couch and the other in the bathroom. I gave my husband a wink, which meant "go for it".  Moments later the house went DARK!!! Dad had flipped the switch on the breaker. I was not really expecting for it to be as dark as it was. I had 2 screaming babies trying to find me, 1 eight year old screaming from the bathroom and another 8 year old screaming from the couch. I call for the babies to come find me as I worried the one in the bathroom was going to run out without finishing what needs to be done. Instantly dad was in the hallway with a flashlight and all the kids stopped panicking. Candles were then lit throughout the house.

It was a very windy night which was nice to blame the power outage on the wind. We sat in the candle lit family room and I again asked the kids what they wanted to do for Family Night. They had to think of things that didn't require electricity or bright lights. We ended up in our PJ's in mom and dads bed snuggling and telling stories. This always turns into rough housing. After we put the babies to bed we played a game of sorry in the dim lit room.

At one point my son looks outside and says "wow look at all the stars tonight now that the city is so dark." Tee Hee. So glad they never noticed the lights on at the neighbors house.



The boys still think the wind knocked out the power that night. I don't have the heart to tell them what really happened. The next night one of my kids wanted to do Family Night over since we couldn't do anything the night before because the power was out. I had to remind him how much fun we had together the night before in the dark. "Oh yeah" he said, "that was fun".

There is a bonus to this Family Night...not only do you save money for not running ANY electricity for a few hours, but after the kids go to bed the house is already romantically lit.

"The Fight"

It's not what you think. Maybe any other day you could describe how my kids spend their time together as "The Fight", but not on Family Night.

Instead we spent the evening writing and illustrating our own book together. The boys titled it "The Fight". I have 2 eight year old boys...enough said!

I was at the computer typing as dad and the boys took their turns making up the story. I found this to be a very difficult Family Night with the 2 babies. They could not contribute to the fun and did not like being left out. Instead they liked pounding on my laptop computer as I tried to type. We eventually had to stop and take a break until the babies went to bed. We rough housed with all the boys and then off to bed the babies went and the rest of the family could get back to our creativity.

Apparently our story roughly resembles a Ninjago book. If you have an 8 year old son you probably know what I am talking about. There were a lot of good guys and a lot of bad guys fighting over various Ninja weapons. There were a couple of dragons and I had to throw in something girly so there was also a princess.

The boys would take turns telling the story and then every once in a while we would stop and draw pictures to go with what they had just made up. While they drew I did some editing and arranging the pages to be printed out.  Here are a few pictures my kids and their dad drew. 

After the story was completed I printed the whole thing out, punched holes in it and placed it into a binder for safe keepings. I imagine we will enjoy it for generations. The big boys had so much fun coming up with their own story and drawing pictures to go with it. The next morning they couldn't wait to see it all put together and to re-read it again. They both agreed we should do that again for a Family Night. OK with me...costs us nothing!!! We had the binder, the paper and the markers. I love it when their favorites don't cost any money!!

I am sure you all read to your kids on a regular basis. This Friday try something new and sit down and write a book together! Or enjoy reading ours!

The Fight

written & illistrated By The Barna Family 1/20/2012

Once upon a time there were 3 good guys. Their names were Daddy, Wesley & Garrin. Those guys know how to do lots of things. They know how to hike, eat pizza and play video games. Then one day there were 3 bad guys who came. Their names were Dimitri, Riley and Noah. The bad guys knew how to throw baseballs, draw pictures and fight people. The good guys did not know how to do that so they had a master who trained them and his name was Chad. He was training them to become a ninja.

The master was looking for 4 weapons. They were an ax, a sword, numchuks and shriekens. And the bad guys came over to where the good guys practiced. They went in there to find the map to get all the weapons. They found the map and took it to where the ax was. 

After they found the ax, they already headed off to find the numchucks.  The bad guys weren’t that smart. When they got the numchucks they jumped off the cliff. Then the good guys found them and took the weapons and headed off to find the sword.  After they found the sword they were headed off to the shriekens and grabbed them. Just then a dragon came out from nowhere and started chasing them.

The dragon was big and green with one big horn coming out of the top of his head. It had big yellow teeth as sharp as swords coming from the bottom of his mouth. By looking at the dragon you could tell he wasn’t a very smart creature because of his cross-eyed look. The dragon chased them for nearly a week before he finally caught them to ask them a very important question. Before he was able to ask the good guys a question one of the bad guys jumped out of the bush. It was Riley the Rotten. You could tell it was Riley the Rotten because he yelled out his terrible scream. He startled all the good guys and the dragon before he could ask his question.

Riley the Rotten stole all the weapons and ran for his life screaming his terrible scream. He ran into a different dragon. This dragon looked like ice and had sharp teeth like shriekens. He had 3 horns on his head. He was mad at Riley for stealing the weapons from the good guys. Riley ran the other way back towards the good guys. He gave back the weapons and ran for his life screaming his terrible scream once again.

He heads towards the cliff where the bad guys had jumped off the cliff and took a dive to the bottom. The green dragon finally had a chance to ask the good guys his question. “Have you got every single weapon yet?” The good guys had to answer “No” because the numchucks went over the cliff with the bad guys. Then Rotten Riley and the bad guys came out with the numchucks and fought the good guys who have a sword, shriekens and an ax. And then both dragons join the good guys team.

The bad guys then ran down the cliff and went through all the caves to the bad guys mansion. They then told all the bad guys to go get all the weapons from the good guys. 

As the bad guys were plotting on the other side of the river the good guys realized while stealing the weapons back and forth, Princess mommy was abducted by a white hairy monster. The monster took her to the bad guys mansion. As the hairy monster arrived the bad guys said “we better get ready because the good guys are going to be coming”. So they locked princess mommy in a jail cell on the top of the mansion tower. As they locked the jail cell door they told her “keep quiet”. Then they left to get ready for the BIG FIGHT.

They set up, booby traps with bowling balls as cannons for an army truck. They dug giant pits with ugly green lava and yellow polka dotted fish. When they were done, Noah the notorious exclaimed “let’s see those good guys get through this.

The good guys hopped on the dragons back and flew to the mansion. On the way to the mansion the dragon and the good guys came across some flying bowling balls. One hit the dragon and the dragon crash landed right next to the mansion. Dapper Daddy, Wesley the Wonderful, and Garrin the Great fell into the ugly green lava with the polka dotted fish. “How in the world are we going to get out of this?” Exclaimed Dapper Daddy. Garrin the Great said “Let’s get a pizza and throw it at the fish”. 

Unfortunately the pizza delivery truck got shot down by bowling balls. The pizza truck made it through the bowling ball booby trap and crashed into the ditch with the good guys. Pizza was delivered in 30 minutes or less. Wesley the Wonderful said “look we can use the truck as a ladder”. 

They made it to the front door of the mansion with a box of pizza where the first bad guy Dimitri the despicable was ready to start a fight and called on all of his friends for help. 

Quickly, Garrin the Great, Wesley the Wonderful and Dapper Daddy pulled out their weapons. The bad guys weapons were so weak against the good guys golden weapons.

The good guys knock the bad guys silly and storm their way into the mansion. Then they climbed their way to the top of the mansion searching for princess mommy. They find her sleeping peacefully and Garrin the Great slices his way through the locked door with his sword.

Then the white hairy monster sneaks up behind them all and locks them into the jail cell with Princess Mommy. Luckily Wesley the Wonderful was able to pick the lock with his shrieken and open the jail cell. They all run out with Princess Mommy over Garrin the Greats shoulders. On their way out they find themselves lost and trapped in another room. Dapper Daddy grabs his ax and chopps his way through a wall. They all run out of the building and use the numchucks to zip line out of the mansion and back to safety. Princess Mommy takes all the good guys back to her castle and bakes them cookies and pizza while they all play video games. 

And they lived happily ever after.

The End

For more information please visit our website at www.thefight.com (not really, but my son wanted to add it)

Ask the Kids

So after a month of Christmasy Family Nights, New years with great friends and a special birthday dinner it is time to start a whole new year with some NEW Family Night ideas.

...or so I thought. I spent all last Friday 1/13 searching the internet for some insiration. I had found a handful of new, easy and cheap ideas and I couldn't wait to share them with the kids.

Before suggesting anything I decided to ask them if they had any ideas. Normally Garrin would suggest going out for ice cream and Wesley usually says he doesn't care. I figured I'd then swoop in with my AWESOME ideas. However, they threw me for a loop. Both, without hesitation, said they wanted to play with their new toys they had gotten from Christmas and birthday.

I thought about it and after realizing there were still quite a few they hadn't opened and played with yet I had to agree it was a GREAT idea on their part. Plus side is...now I get to keep my ideas one week longer.

So for Family Night last week we played 2 new Wii games together. We started with the Wii games since we can hand a remote to the babies and they feel like they are part of the game. After the babies went to bed we pulled out a new "totally gross" game, played a new dominoe game and seeded their Chia Pets. Time ran out, but there are a couple more they havn't opened yet. I think I'll hide them for another Family Night in the near future.

I thought I was going to have this great blog entry to share for you today. I guess the point of this blog is to never forget to ask your kids if THEY have any ideas. They just might surprise you and they'll feel so special when the whole family has fun doing what they suggested.