There is so much we have to be thankful for and the more I think back on 2008 as we close off the year, the more I think it's time that families continue to unite. Family values are so very important, especially to our children and it's something that our society is losing quickly.
In the crazy and frazzled world we live in, where time is crunched and parents are struggling with finances and the economy, kids many times get lost in the shuffle.
My heart believes we need to spend more. Not more money, but more quality time with our kids. It's as easy as doing little things such as eating dinner around the table as a family, having a "family fun night" once a week where you choose a family movie, make popcorn and sit in PJs on the family room floor, maybe camping-out in the backyard, or having a half-hour of reading time as a family where everyone chooses their favorite books and sits and reads to themselves or to each other as a family. You can have a game night playing board games anything from Trivial Pursuit to Candyland or creating yummy and simple snacks that are fun and silly.
I'm sure many of you already do these type of activities. But to make it a bit easier, I thought I would GIVE AWAY something that would help come up with ideas.
So, in celebration of my site hitting 100,000 visits (since I opened it June 10, 2007), of us ringing in a New Year and most importantly, in celebration of families, I am giving away ::drum roll::
In order to enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment sharing an idea of a fun activity you do with your kiddos! Easy as that. You're still waiting for a little one? No problem! Leave a comment about what fun activity you have planned for him or her. Kids grown? Don't worry. You can pass along the magazine as a gift to someone with young 'uns or you can keep it for ideas to do with the grandkids! And of course, this is a great time for my loyal lurkers to come out and say, "Hi!" When the drawing is over, I will then make a future post with all those great ideas to share with everyone else. Sound good?
The drawing will be held on Saturday morning, January 10 and no more comments will be received after midnight on the 9th! So don't put off entering!
I know you'll love the magazine and you have a double the chances of winning since there will be TWO winners!!! (Remember to leave me an email address if you don't have a blog so that I can reach you if you win.)
TO ALL MY WONDERFUL BLOGGY FRIENDS AND FAMILY:
HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
28 comments :
Am I first? Honored. Something G and I do is make pizza together. something else we do is glue anything and everything!! we love to play with glue or well, G does.
What a lovely idea, Ohilda! My husband and I both work full time jobs, so the few hours at night we get to spend with Julia are priceless. Our activites are whatever Julia wants to do at the moment! Most of the time, we are in the floor playing with her...the child loves Play-doh, so that's just about every night. Right before bed, we all read a book together, and then I still rock her for about 20 minutes while we both sing songs. She has got Brahm's Lullaby memorized :)
Thanks for the opportunity!
Beck
What a wonderful giveaway. As you know, my kids are older, but one thing we did when they were young was "family night" Friday night was family night...pizza and then the kids took turns picking a game or movie.
Another thing was did was at dinner. I had a basket full of strips of paper with questions on them. We would all go around and take one slip out of the basket and have to answer that question during dinner.
Have a wonderful evening and Happy 2009!!
What a great idea. I know our family needs to spend more quality time together. We have game night-the kids love playing Phase 10 or Uno with us. We also have craft day-we have tons of popsicle sticks and we glue them together and make all sorts of things-we especially enjoyed painting them and making Christmas ornaments. We use their fingerprints to make all sorts of artwork-They have fun and I have items to treasure and remember the size of their hands.
Thanks,
Angel
Greetings friend (dang - feel like almost family) - less interested in the magazine than I am in these ideas! Here's an old favoriate - cards...just plain cards....pick your game! Kids as young as 4 or 5 can play (ok - you gotta help a little) - but we can loose a whole night on them. Rum games (shanghi is a fav with us), poker, hearts, spades, even bridge if there are only 4 of us! The big rule in partner games is parent with a child tho! Stories every night is important too - we do two a night at bedtime - even the older kids still talk about it! And for those of us with 'different' or 'changing' schedules (kinda like me) - MORNING TIME instead of evening - we spend a lot of time on the 'family bed' when the kids come in first thing in the morning and we all kind of lay around and TALK - even the older ones (yes my post grad Phd kid even) still like mornings there!
We're with you guys - when ever the time is stop what you are 'doing' and act on it!
Happy New Year all -
aus and co.
What a great give-away! When my boys were younger, we always had No TV, No Telephone Fridays. We would play games, make homemade pizza and read bedtime stories! So fun!!
Happy New Year to you, my sweet friend!
Love you,
Monica
Family Fun magazine is the BEST priced and most WONDERFULLY put together magazine ever! Recipes, crafts, vacation tips, book and software reviews---everything!!! Great giveaway, Ohilda. Lucky winners? You will love this!!
You KNOW I am loving this Ohilda!! Happy 100,000!! Isn't that SOOOOOOO cool!?!?!?
Ummmm, we read in WEIRD places...in the Eagle's nest of our play set, in a tent, on a bridge near our house,in the yard on a rug, anywhere we can think of that is a bit different...we call them "book picnics." Snacks fun but NOT required! :)
Thank you for the compliments you left on my blog. I have truly enjoyed browsing through yours... you are an amazing woman and I look forward to finding out more about you!
We try hard to have a family night once a week. In addition to doing something fun together, like watching a movie or playing games, we also try to teach the children something about the gospel.
I want to enter!
We love to watch movies together on weekends. Also, Olivia and Mia LOVE to do crafts, so we do a lot of that kind of thing. Cutting, gluing, coloring, glittering.
Happy New Year, friend!
sherri
Ohilda,
Me and the kids are planning to go hiking in the woods with the new binoculars they got for Christmas ! What a way to get out and learn about nature.
Thanks, Charlotte and crew
Woo Hoo, Miss 100,000!!
I love this idea. I'm probably not original, but we always eat together at the dinner table, or an occasional picnic on the carpet (which the girls think is so super special)... we have a movie night every week, where we all snuggle up under a blanket with popcorn and watch a kids movie... we play board games or puzzles... and our new post-Christmas favorite is to play Wii as a family. Even Mia plays. (So funny!)
Happy New Year, Ohilda!
Charlotte, be sure to take along a disposable camera for each kid when you go hiking. Then have them developed at Walgreen's when they are running a special. It's great to see what the little ones are seeing as picture worthy.
Ohilda, we LOVE sports, and one of our favorites is college baseball. There are so many of them and the distance to them means we don't go very often, but we LISTEN to almost all of our team's games. Well, this isn't too absorbing for Lydia, so I try to keep her entertained with a bucket of water and paint brushes in a variety of sizes. She can paint the porch, the sidewalk, the driveway - whatever she wants. It's usually warm enough that it dries quickly so she a fresh canvas all over again. We also love sidewalk chalk and BUBBLES!
This is more of a summer time activity, but can be fun in the winter too with adorning hats, mittens, and scarves to set the mood! The kids love when I make ice treasures even my 13 year old gets into it. I simply take any small shallow container, fill it with fun trinkets and then pour just enough water over it to cover, freeze and then you have an ice treasure. GIve the kids toothpicks, toothbrushes, salt shakers and let them go at it, melting the ice until they find all their treasures. I get items that are relevant such as when we were in Hawaii, I found seashells, fake flowers from the leis and always coins. Over Christmas, the treasures contained bells, a plastic miniature baby Jesus, tinsel and such.
Love you giveaway and your blog! Hurry, my giveaway closes at the strike of midnight!!!
What a great idea for a give away...I love it! That is a great magazine too. My kids love to play board games as a family & help in the kitchen...We love to play shopping & they are the cashiers..I buy stuff & act silly. Just showing them my undivided attention is really all they long for. Great post!
Hi Ohilda...thanks for all your sweet comments! We do Friday night family-fun night...I make popcorn ON THE STOVE..melt butter and then add SALT!!! So Yummy!! Then we watch a movie, play games, and end the night with stories. I love Fridays!!! and I love Family Fun magazine!!
Since we have big kids and little Josiah (who THINKS he is big too!) it has been more challenging for us as a family to find activities that everyone actually enjoys doing!
One thing that is a sure win for everybody is baking! The kids love it when we have pizza night game night and they get to make their own pizzas, choose toppings and create weird combinations! They are so proud of their pizza creations! We usually play the kiddy games first like Memory, with Josiah and then we play the big-people games and give Josiah a job like dice roller or pawn mover! This way he thinks he is big stuff and we get to play something we enjoy!
Another fun (redneck!) activity we enjoy is going to Sam's Club on a Saturday and trying all the various samples they have for tasting!
The kids love this (even though it isn't my favorite!) and we look at the new books that are out on the shelves and make notes to check the library for the ones we want to read! We usually get a pizza to share at the Sam's Cafe and their giant sodas are like $.87 each!
I guess we're simple people!
I am not entering but I LOVE this magazine. Connie got it for me last year and it is awesome! I hope the two people who win will have as much fun with it as we have!!! Happy New Year!!
Well for the past 3 1/2months every Sat. we all look forward to heading out to church (Meaghan loves going)then out for pizza,it is just very nice and relaxing.......Oh how i wish you could see M in church,she loves taking the hym book and reads or sings....she usally does this so softly at home however in church she tends to get louder and louder,a couple weeks ago all eyes were on her and father Paul had to stop smile and said well miss Meaghan it looks like you have stole my spot light.....it was to cute her eyes became hugh as she looked up(looking mortified)when she heard her name....lol!
Hi Ohilda~
I enjoy checking in on you from time and time and I saw the contest, so I thought I would post. We just love being silly and Taylor loves to pretend. Just tonight he was laying on 3 pillows on the floor, with his sunglasses on making believe he was laying on a float in the pool. He also loves to help me cook and put clothes up and collect all the dirties. We also like playing Candy Land. Playdoh, coloring, and reading are also big hits in our house. Happy New Year.
Jennifer
www.thehewgleys.blogspot.com
jmhewgley@yahoo.com
We try to do movie night as often as possible. I hope that when the kids are a little older it will get easier instead of harder. Right now Jack just can't sit through an entire movie. Oh and I just LOVE When Harry met Sally! I watched it yesterday, and the day before that!
Ohilda! Greetings from a fellow MeiDreamer! I came across your blog via www.nohandsbutours. My how your family has grown. I didn't know about Anna Grace. What an amazing journey God has had your family on!
I just wanted to say hello and share what my family does for fun (please, don't worry about the subscription for us, share it with another family!) We now have 2 children (Kai Lin and Li Hong) and we make it a practice to go "out on dates". Sometimes its just a picnic in the park, trip to the grocery store or a short walk down our road. But we try to find ways that make it special (like the free cookies at the grocery store). Kai Lin has taken to calling it a "date as a family because we are a family" and ennunciates every syllable of fam-i-ly. They know that dates are something people who love each other do. We get busy with work and we forget to just play. Thank you for your reminder. Your three "smaller babies" are getting big and I'm glad you're all doing well. God bless you all this 2009!
Kerry Seip
Mei Dreamer DTC 2005
**our web site will only be good for about another 2 weeks before it goes offline. Working on starting a blog most likely with the same tandksplace....
www.tandksplace.com
tandk91@hotmail.com
Congratulations on 100,000 hits! I hope to one day accomplish what you have! What a great giveaway! My family loves to watch Little HOuse on the Prairie, we have the seasons on dvd and we watch at least 2 sometimes 3 a week.
What a fabulous giveaway! We are a game lovin' family- a bit obsessed may be a better description. We homeschool, so the second we are finished everyday we break out a game. Board games, card games, Twister, whatever we are in the mood for.
Hubby and I both make time one day a month to have a "Daddy Day" or "Mommy Day" with one of our girls. A dollar amount is set and they are free to choose what we do together. We change it up a bit and make the dollar amounts different everytime. We once set the amount at $5. We ended up at the icecrem shop then the playground and had the most fabulous time!! One on one time is so important- you get to really talk with each child and let them know how much you love them- individually. Hope you have a blessed week!
In Him,
E
Hello my beautiful sister: well I was not going to enter in this competition but then I figured I would, why not? Besides the usual eating together at the dinner table and each person taking a turn to say a blessing. The other thing that we really enjoy doing as a family is our annual ski trip. All of us enjoy skiing and hopefully little seth will like it to as he gets older and learns the sport.
As the Motto says "A family that SKI'S TOGETHER stays together" heh!
HOPE I WIN.
Gosh there are so many fun things to do, and that we have done, now I am just trying to pick,...But here goes nothin'
I am a BIG advocate for community service so one of my family's favorites is sponsoring a child at Christmas. I have 3 daughters so we usally pick a girl. We do what is required but then we do more. They really get into it ( they are 6,4, and 2) Even at 4 she understands why this is so important,.. I am usally left with tears in my eyes until the wrapping is complete. We pick out an outfit with matching shoes and thights and so on,..... the day could not be truly expressed. We start in the morning and spend all day focusing and thinking of this little girl that we have adopted in our hearts, we share stories of giving and how we are like God's hands. Even after we deliver the items the girls still think about this special girl they still have in their heart.
I love doing things with my children that I feel will give them skills to be empathic, strong, and passionate young women.
So thats our story,enjoy
Been sooooo busy, but I always find time to get back here and see what you are up to. I love catching up with your family. Looks like you had a great Christmas season and special times with your kids/family.
We are a big game playing family. Cards, Sorry, Twister (last nights choice), shooting hoops, whatever. The kids got lots of new games for Christmas, so that will keep us busy over the next few months.
Blessings, Starla
Friday night dance party !
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