Family Things

[christykay]

As I look back on my childhood I realize that as a family we didn't really do a whole lot together. While I am raising my own family I see the opposite and notice that we do quite a bit.

So I was just wondering, what are some things that you currently do as a family or did with your family as a child, that you remember doing on a regular basis?

I'll start with just a few: Every Friday Night we have Family Fun Night. Most often we have pizza (often we make it homemade) and eat it on the living room floor picnic style while watching a movie. Sometimes we do a game night with snacks and stay up late or occassionally we make it to a local festival or event.

In the past (before all the chaos of having 2 kids in sports and 1 in scouts) we would present a "special plate" at dinner. The child that stood out during the day that had displayed a kind action to someone or came home with a good grade would be presented this crazy rainbow painted plate to eat dinner on. Before eating our meal everyone at the table is encouraged to say one nice thing about the person that is receiving the "special plate". It is great to hear what the kids come up with. Sometimes the kids have presented me or DH the "special plate" which is nice to know that all of our hard work isn't always going un-noticed.

Another thing that we do is to have a container of simple questions at the dinner table. During our meal someone pulls a question and reads it and then we all take turns answering. I create simple questions that are easy to read and answer. "What has been your favorite vacation" "What is your favorite fruit?" It has been a great way to learn more about each other and after the typical "how was your day?" these questions have added a little more.

So those are just a few, but I thought I would ask you all.
(My efforts in creating a much lighter thread).

[czechmate]

I like your idea of having different questions at the dinner table.
I think I'll try that.

We have family movie night -- on Fridays. We make popcorn and watch a movie.
We try to have (our last name starts with s) sssss Saturdays. We TRY to do something fun every Saturday. Doesn't always work, but we try.
Last weekend we drove an hour to the Renessaince Festival. It was a hoot. The kids loved it and it was alot cheaper than Disney.

I would love to hear from other moms.

Thanks for the great idea AND lighter topic.

Jen

[spotty4]

I am not a mom yet myself, but I can reflect on experiences of when I was a kid.

Like christykay, we had a "special plate". It was bright red w/ white script lettering that said "You are special today." Mom broke this out for each birthday (family of 6), Mother's Day, Father's Day, and any other really special event. The special person would eat all meals from that plate for the day.

The other fun special treat we could always rely on was every summer, on Father's Day, we'd spend the day at Cedar Point! So awesome! I would never sleep the night before. Now that I'm older I don't know how my parents did it. We lived in Flint, MI at the time, so it was ~3hr drive each direction, plus a FULL ON day at the amusement park.

I really like the idea of a special day of the week, casual, picnic style dinner. And the questions idea is nice, too.

[czechmate]

We ALWAYS went to the point!!!!!!
It was a haul for us too (I'm from Ft. Wayne, IN) but always a blast.
Jen

[Mistress Trista]

We don't really have a weekly thing, but we always have a huge July 4th blowout.

Our house and the one behind us are on a hill, sort of with a 2 acres pond between us in a shallow gulley. There's also 2 acres of land so about 4 acres total. Every 4th for the last 3 years, we've both done 4th of July and shot them out over the pond at the same time, so we get their show and vice versa. It's pretty cool...

We also do special things for mother's day and father's day and every spring we have a huge family picnic in the smokey's with my family, my brother's family and all the aunts and uncles from my dad's side of the family. That's always nice.

[jr_lenz]

I love starting new family traditions, and of course the old.
we always read the christmas story before opening presents on Christmas.

we have a red plate.

we snuggle and talk/read at bedtime

we have "silly" songs for everyone(pets included) in the family, that DS and I make up and sing all the time.

we have stay up late night...and spend the night parties(when DH is on a trip, DS comes and stays with me(my room) , and every once in awhile, we have sleep overs in his room)

You get to pick your meal on your b-day.

there are more, but I don't want to bore you.

[Regina]

We use to have "campouts" in my room before the kids started school or in the summer. It was a big deal of movie, popcorn, sleeping in mommy's room while daddy was at work.

We also do the pick your birthday meal...thank goodness one of my girl's loves salmon and has that for her feast day and birthday.

We celebrate their saint day in honor of the saint that they were named after....more or less a birthday party with just us and no dEcorations.

Once in awhile, typically at the end of my pregnancy the kids and hubby do a queen mommy day. They make a crown and let me sleep most of the day.

We don't do a lot of big family vacations because of the kids ages and lack of money for that, but we do a lot of day trips that we call vacations. The kids love those days. This week we took a day and went to a park, Fort desota battle ground, and then a pretty secluded beach. It was so nice because most kids were in school, and we were basically the only ones there. my kids school had the day off.

the kids love to get in my bed and read the magic treehouse books...