As you may or may not know, back in October I added a Family Night series to my Early Childhood/Parenting column. As you can imagine, I've started to build quite a little library of family night ideas and it seemed like it would be beneficial to my readers to provide an index of those articles. So, if ever you're in need of some inspiration for family night ideas, you will no longer have to rack your brain or attempt to scroll through the pages of my articles to find, "that one that's just on the tip of your brain..." Instead, you can just go to, Family Night: A reader's guide. The index will be updated as new articles are published. If you ever have a Family Night idea that you'd like to see featured in this particular series, you know the drill, shoot me an e-mail or you can always look me up on Facebook. Enjoy your family!
 Matching jammies for their first slumber party. This past weekend Abby reached a crucial milestone in becoming a kid. Gone is the toddler, she is now fully embarking upon honest to goodness “kid-dom.” She had her first slumber party with her cousin counterpart, who is exactly one year older than her.
Earlier in the week Abby declared her desire to have a sleepover, when I inquired as to who we would be inviting for such an event, there was no hesitation when she said we needed to call ‘Kayla. A phone call was made to my sister and after she had a conversation with her husband, it was agreed, we would get Makayla on Friday night.
Following you’ll get an up close and personal view of what it looks like to have a 4 and 5-year-old slumber party.
4:30 p.m. – Call my sister to see if we can pick up Makayla and take her to the store with us.
4:45 p.m. – With a giddy girl in tow, we dash up to the door and are greeted with equally matched giddiness. With her little roll-along suitcase in tow, followed by a flurry of kisses and “have funs” we are out the door and ready to kickoff our night.
4:50 p.m. – Upon getting the girls safely buckled in, as we head out of the driveway their giddiness cannot be contained as they giggle uncontrollably and play an adapted game of hide and seek…Buckled. In the car. Makayla: “Count to two Abby and I’ll hide.” Abby: “Okay! One, two, three, four…” Makayla: “No! Just to two Abby!” As she ducks her head to the side of the car seat.
5:45 p.m. – Following a successful outing to the store we arrived home and the girls volunteer to help make the pancakes. This required no small amount of negotiating skills on my part, as we determined who got to pour what in, followed by how long they got to stir before switching. Overall, phenomenal helpers.
As I finished up the pancakes and got the eggs and sausage going, the girls played some UNO Moo and Whack-a-Mole. 6:15 p.m. – We settle in with our breakfast for dinner and both the girls eat ridiculously well. Despite warnings from both her parents and Makayla herself that she doesn’t eat eggs, she had two helpings – we’ll simply call it the magic of Aunt Bec.
7:00 p.m. – The girls and I play a couple of rounds of UNO Moo before they decide they do in fact still have room in their tummies and vote that it’s most definitely time to get the popcorn popping.
7:30 p.m. – With only a small level of debate the girls pick their movie of the night and we end up with the fantastic third installment of Toy Story. Picking out the movie went too smoothly so we were due for at least a minor argument, which was the result of who got to sit on which chair and where.
Major drama was averted by piling pillows up for the girls to lay on complete with blankie snuggling. We got the popcorn popped and they settled in for loads of giggling fun.
9:15 p.m. – “Okay girls! Time to get ready for bed!” Already jammied up, this was met with no resistance as they shared the stool to brush their teeth…It was too easy.
--Phone call from my mother: “Well at least since they’re so little, you won’t have to deal with the whole staying up all night.” Me: “Oh, yeah…Totally.”
9:15 p.m. – 12:15 a.m. –
- “I need water.”
- “I’m scared.”
- “Aunt Becca, Abby doesn’t want to sleep in the tent.”
- “I want a cup.”
- “I’ve got to go potty.”
- “Can I call my mom to say goodnight?”
- “Abby wants to sleep in the tent again.”
- “Where’s my sleep buddy?”
- “I’m cold.”
- “Will you zip us in the tent?”
- “I love you.”
5:45 a.m. – Hearing the girls get up to use the bathroom, I continue dozing on the couch. However…I am again raised from my sleep to realize I still hear two silly girls. As I drag myself off the couch, I see that the light in Abby’s room is on. I open the door to two guilty looking girls who each want to blame the other for playing at this ridiculous time of morning. However, I send them back into the tent where they sleep until…
8:30 a.m. – “Shhh be quiet.” We’re up and running for the day. The girls have their breakfast, we catch some Saturday morning cartoons, and cap off our slumber party with some Go Fish and Crazy Eights.
While getting them to go to sleep definitely wasn’t easy-peasy I think we’ll go ahead and bill our first slumber party as a success!
Since the inception of Family Night Tuesdays and Fun Fridays, each week I know I can bank on having two articles written, without fail. This can certainly lead to some level of anxiety as I try to come up with topics that are fun, helpful, and hopefully, witty. Regardless of this self-imposed pressure, I love writing these articles. They add a lighthearted quality to my column that, thus far, have received an overwhelmingly positive response from my readers. So today, I'm going to take the opportunity to highlight some of my most recent favorites from both of these.
Last week's Family Night article was a take off of the Christmas classic, The Twelve Days of Christmas. For our purposes, however, I whittled it down to the 'Six' days of Christmas. Believe me when I tell you, you'll have more fun if you sing along as you read the article.
One of the two Fun Friday pieces I'm going to feature here is the Top 10 reasons to be thankful to be a parent. This one I did all by my little lonesome self with no feedback from other parents. Simply, it is my current top 10 list why being a mom is so stinking fabulous! I tried to intersperse the funny with the sentimental - though all come very deeply from my heart. If you didn't happen to catch it, I hope you will.
[Image]My most recent Family Night piece highlighted a family recipe. Wait, scratch that - a beloved family recipe. Each year, I wait in eager anticipation for December so the wreath making can begin. If you've never had a cornflake, edible Christmas wreath...Well, I'll just pause here in a moment of silence for you...And then I'm going to direct you to the link to this article, as quickly as possible.
Each December I think of the other shapes I could use, the other food colorings that would work in order to adapt these delectable delights to other holidays, yet I never do. I so love these wreaths that at my baby shower, my sister and sis-in-law made them in the shape of baby booties. The shower was in December, but they just couldn't bring themselves to serve wreaths at a baby shower. I can vividly recall sneaking into my grandmother's kitchen with my siblings and cousins in the middle of the night with only the light of the fridge to guide us as we sneaked wreaths from the fridge. Seriously, if you've never had these, it's a must add to the holiday treat list.
For our final peak at the silly side of my column, I bring you last Friday's Fun Friday edition. This was a beautiful compilation of my own stories and stories from other parents. This article was From the mouths of babes. Amazing response on this one. People really seemed to enjoy it, but we're talking about the funnies kids say, so what's not enjoy? So many of the Friday articles would not come to fruition without these wonderful parents so willing to share pieces of their children with me - and by extension, you, so thank you all who contribute; I couldn't do it without you.
Hope you're having a wonderful week! Thanks for coming along for the ride.
This week I posted/published the first in my first ever weekly series. The premise of this weekly feature is centered around providing ideas for family night. Whether the family night occurs on Wednesday night (so designated years ago when "Church Night" got banned out of the school's verbiage - kids are suppose to come home with considerably lighter backpacks on "Family Night." So whether your family rocks a family night during the week or on the weekend, this column is here to provide ideas.
As we know, miss Abby is a fabulous 3-year-old, but she doesn't always stick to a whole game (I've come to the conclusion if we attempt to make it too obviously a learning experience instead of just "fun" she'll bail on us). My sister often comments that she better get on board pretty soon because Bryan and I are BIG fans of playing games. We tend towards card games, but put any kind of game in front of us and we're a happy couple. Should you be invited into our home for dinner, it's almost a guarantee you will be drawn into some kind of game.
For a look at our first set of suggestions, head on over to my Examiner page. But first let's talk about where you come in...I'm sure your family has special activities you've done or do to make the most of your family night. I want to include ideas outside of my own perspective, so if you've got an activity that you'd like to see featured in one of these weekly columns, send 'em my way! You can e-mail me, leave a comment below (or on the article itself), or find me onFacebook.
Family Night: What are your plans?
Enjoy your family!
Just curious, have you found ways to raise awareness for any of the many areas awareness is being raised for this October?
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