Weekly:
Monday nights are family nights. We have a rotation chart that helps us keep track of who is doing the gospel lesson, music, prayers, activity, and treat. This is a great way to spend time with the kids one on one because we make the treat together and I help them serve it to our family afterwards, or we color something or create a game for the lesson, etc.
Friday nights are movie nights. We either rent, purchase, or check out (from the library) a movie that we haven't yet seen and veg on the couch as a family with a big bucket of popcorn.
Saturday mornings Ryan loves to make the kids some kind of egg breakfast. Sometimes it's scrambled eggs with cheese, eggs and bacon, eggs and hashbrowns, eggs and toast, fried egg sandwiches, and occasionally pancakes or waffles.
At least once each weekend we make a trip to the park for hide and seek, tag, playing soccer or racing the dog. Penny, our mini schnauzer, loves coming along.
Monthly:
One Saturday every month we do something exciting for the whole family. Last month we went to a local farm/carnival and played in the pouring rain all day. The kids jumped into the hay jump, rode the roller coaster and train, sang with the entertainer, picked out pumpkins, fed the animals in the petting zoo, and rode ponies.
Other Saturdays have been spent at the Science Center, Zoo, and the Children's Museum. (We just bought an annual pass!) Camping, fishing, hiking, and swimming are some other examples.
On average we get together with my family monthly. We try to celebrate everyone who has had a birthday that month over dinner and presents and ice cream.
Annually:
We attend two family reunions. They are always held over a weekend at a state park or other campground. Our family camps out in our little tent trailer. It's not the fanciest but it keeps us off the ground, has cushions to sleep on, two outlets for electronics (or a space heater), and a small, cold-water only sink. It also allows us to bring more bikes and toys along. During the reunions we usually spend lots of our time swimming at a lake or river, riding bikes with cousins, playing card games, hiking or visiting nearby parks, and sitting around the campfire. We also usually have a large family paintball battle, which is a lot of fun.
We also try to go camping a few other times every year. For example, we are some of those annoying Memorial Day weekend campers. It's the first weekend of camping season and after staying indoors for the winter, everyone is pumped to get outside. There is also a large church ranch up in the mountains that we like to go to. We get to go fishing, ride horses, and paddle around in canoes while we are there.
We go sledding. This started a couple of years ago when we noticed a lot of snow in the mountains and wanted to go play. My whole family came along and the competitive nature of the men started bubbling. Pretty soon we had this huge, snow-packed jump they had built and were trying to see how far they could fly off of it. Lately we've combined our sledding excursion with my family's Christmas party, which generally involves staying at some small cabins at the church ranch.
Don't worry. No one laying on the ground after the jump was hurt in the stunt. The sledder cleared us all. Although I must say these men are ALMOST professionals. Don't try this at home.
Sometime during the holiday break we typically spend time with Ryan's family in New Mexico. Most people think it's hot in NM all the time. Not where they live. They almost always have snow for Christmas. Traditionally we do game nights, snow ball fights, more sledding, rockets and ice skating/swimming among other things. When we go visit in the summer, we love to go swim at the community swimming pool that is 2 houses away, where Ryan was a lifeguard in the summers.
At our house birthdays are a special day. We allow the special person to pick their favorite dinner, cake and ice cream flavor, and then they eat off of the CELEBRATE plate. While we eat, each person in the family gets to share something that they love or appreciate about the birthday boy or girl. We also do candygrams for the birthday person.
At our house birthdays are a special day. We allow the special person to pick their favorite dinner, cake and ice cream flavor, and then they eat off of the CELEBRATE plate. While we eat, each person in the family gets to share something that they love or appreciate about the birthday boy or girl. We also do candygrams for the birthday person.
