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.