Family Fun

Creative Family Fun Nights: Family Interviews

April 25, 2012 By Terri Thompson

It’s not always easy to come up with ideas for the whole family that don’t require money or a car trip anywhere. So, that’s why I’ve decided to start sharing some of my ideas for family fun nights.

Set aside a night and after dinner pledge to spend time together as a family, laughing and having fun.

This activity, Family Interview, is designed to help you get to know each other better and have fun while you’re at it! All you need is paper and pen.

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You may need to do a little bit of prep ahead of time by thinking up the questions, or have the family come up with them over the dinner table.
Then comes the fun part, take turns asking each other the questions and see what fun things you can discover about each other!

Here are some sample questions.

For the kids:

Name?
Age?
Favorite color?
Favorite food?
Favorite song?
Favorite book?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
If you could be any animal in the world, what would you be?
Who is your hero? Why?

For the adults:

Name?
Favorite color?
Favorite food?
Favorite book?
What was your first pet’s name? Tell about it.
What was your first job?
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Who do you admire? Why?

Let the questions lend themselves to stories and further conversation. This is a perfect way to reconnect as a family and get to know each other better.

What questions would you ask?

10 Things To Do When You’re Stuck Indoors

January 12, 2012 By Terri Thompson

I don’t know about your winters, but where I live it’s very likely that we’ll be stuck indoors on many winter days due to dangerously cold temperatures and blizzard like conditions. (No, I don’t live in the frozen tundra, just the upper-Midwest part of the US.)

Or maybe you’re in the middle of summer and it’s hot and muggy outside. You can’t send the kids outside, so what are you going to do?

In case you’re stuck indoors and your kids are getting a little stir crazy, here are 10 ideas for some indoor fun:

1. Find a big piece of cardboard and let your little artists get creative like we did with our Mary, Mary Quite Contrary mural.

2. Put on your pajamas, pop in a good movie, and drink hot cocoa.

3. Make masking tape roads and get out all the toy cars. Here’s a great example of a masking tape town from Creatively Content.

4. Make your own play dough.

5. Have a very bubbly bubble bath or create with bath tub paint. Growing a Jeweled Rose has a fun collection of bath paints you can try.

6. Set up a pretend play invitation like our pet shop. If you don’t want a pet shop, you can set up a grocery store, doctor’s office, or even a zoo.

7. Get cozy under a pile of blankets and read aloud a classic book like Charlotte’s Web or Little House on the Prairie.

8. Have fun with simple science experiments using everyday household items. Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas recently had a Mad Science Week with several fun ideas to try

9. Have a competition to see who can build the tallest block tower or who can build a tower the fastest. Challenge each other with building activities.

10. Raid your recycling bin and use cardboard rolls as stamps like we did with our cardboard roll stamping.

*Bonus Activity* Gather the whole family and put together a jigsaw puzzle. It’s fun, challenging, and a great way to spend time together!

What is your favorite thing to do when you’re stuck indoors?

Fall Bucket List – Revisited

November 22, 2011 By Terri Thompson

Now that Thanksgiving is almost here, it’s time to look at our Fall Bucket List and see what we did and what we missed.

I know Fall’s not over quite yet, but now that the Holiday season is upon us, we’ll be focusing more on Christmas and winter activities.

1. Make apple pie playdough – This was the first thing we did and it was amazing.

2. Carve jack-o-lanterns

3. Collect leaves and make leaf rubbings

4. Go on a hike

5. Visit an apple orchard – We were never able to find the time to go this year. But, we did go to a pumpkin patch instead!

6. Make candy corn sugar cookies – Yet we had plenty of other sweets in our house, maybe that’s why we never made the cookies.

7. Watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – We did this a few times!

8. Make handprint turkeys

9. Drink apple cider – Again, we didn’t do this because we never went to the apple orchard.

10. Make a thankful tree

11. Make apple prints

12. Go on a scavenger hunt

13. Make spider masks

14. Make a fall garland

15. Make pumpkin bread

16. Go acorn collecting – It took several attempts, but we did finally find a few!

17. Do an owl craft

18. Make crock pot apple sauce – This was yummy and the house smelled heavenly all day!

19. Feed the birds

20. Make homemade Halloween cards

We did all but three items on our list and had lots of fun this Fall! I love having a bucket list each season and plan on making a winter one after the holidays are over.

So, you tell me, what should I put on our Winter Bucket List?

Fall Bucket List – Revisited…

October 18, 2011 By Terri Thompson

We’ve been working hard on our fall bucket list the last couple of weeks. Work is not quite the right word for what we’ve been doing, maybe I should say play hard instead!

We made pumpkin bread using this recipe from Everyday Food. Yum!

We went leaf collecting and did some apple stamping.

We made apple pie play dough using this recipe from Mom To 2 Posh Lil Divas and we played with it for days. It smelled heavenly!

And last, but not least, we made our spooky spider masks!

What’s next?

We’re going to do our leaf rubbings and turn them into our fall garland. We’ll feed the birds this week and make our crock pot apple sauce. And of course, anything else that suits our fancy!

Fall Bucket List

September 28, 2011 By Terri Thompson

Even though we didn’t accomplish everything on our summer bucket list, we still loved having it. But, a new season deserves a new list, so here’s our Fall Bucket List. Everything is simple and most can be accomplished at home or close to home. I can’t wait to get started!

1. Make apple pie play dough (I’m going to use this recipe from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas)

2. Carve jack-o-lanterns

3. Collect leaves and make leaf rubbings

4. Go on a hike

5. Visit an apple orchard

6. Make candy corn sugar cookies (just like these from Kathie Cooks…)

7. Watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

8. Make handprint turkeys

9. Drink apple cider

10. Make a thankful tree

11. Make apple prints

12. Go on a scavenger hunt