Family Fun Box

I live thousands of miles away from my family. It is challenging to keep in-touch. We do our best... with phone calls, emails, face book, etc.. but still it is hard to really get to know cousins.

My sister had a wonderful idea this past Christmas- instead of exchanging presents, we would create a "family box". She proposed that each family gather items that they enjoy. Things that are "typical" us, our favorite game, our favorite snack, a movie we enjoy, etc...

Then we would mail our family box to a sibling. ( She made a rotation. ) So each family will have a turn with each others family boxes.

Here we are opening my older brother's family box. (Thanks Koryn! I know you actually did all the work!)

 

There was candy, a movie, pictures taken by their 5 year old- very funny And a fun game to play as a family.

 

 

It was so much fun! It was nice being introduced to a new family game, eat a treat and look at pictures of our cousins. We just popped open the box and no preparation was needed- a mini family reunion!

(The snacks for all the families are included in the box- so I don't have to run out and replace supplies. For example- the candy was in a baggy with our family name on it)

The first box we received was my sister's box. Their favorite family game is called, "Ghost Hunters" and it is hide and seek with flashlights.. my kids LOVED this twist. She included Swedish fish ( a staple in her house), and a movie their family enjoys, along with a "journal" type book that explained items in her box- with pictures.

SUCH A GREAT IDEA!

A friend of mine sent me a "flat Stanley" and I took it to the Polynesian Cultural Center to get it's picture with a hunk.

It was so funny- I thought I was going to have to explain the whole concept to these Polynesian college students.. why I didn't really want to PAY to get in.. I just wanted to slip in past the gates and get a picture with the guys ... I held up my flat Stanley to start my story and they said "FLAT STANLEY- yeah! Come here-- he's been here before!)

PPS- still trying to find my camera!! these photo's are from my mom's camera....

boo hoo...

I might have really lost it! (not just misplaced it around my house or car....)

Christmas Tradition #54

Every year we get a new game. We usually wait and open it Christmas Eve... but this year we didn't.

Why? why would we break tradition?

This years game was given to us by my husbands boss. (What a nice, thoughtful, fun gift!) So when my husband brought it home, confessed he had peeked, told the boys it was Monopoly- NHL version. They begged and pleaded that we could play it for FHE AND on Christmas Eve.

We caved. It was a lot of fun. There are stickers of NHL teams and you get to place them on the board. So it was funny to hear which teams got which spaces on the board.

For example our "Board Walk" is San Jose Sharks. My husbands favorite team.

I'll confess- I didn't play. I was playing with son#4 so the older boys could play and learn the game in peace.

But they had alot of fun.

I can tell this will become a new family favorite.

Some pictures of the boys setting it up.

FHE Lesson

Family Fitness has begun! One and Three are team captains.
(I'm going to start referring to my children by birth order. My husband loves the blog- but is worried that strangers might use the information on our site to "befriend" our children in public. So in attempt to keep them anonymous- a little bit.)

I am on team: BLACK KNIGHTS (Me, son-One and son- Four), my husband is on the other team: RED DRAGONS (My husband, sons Two and Three).
How it works: The center page is our Points Page. It lists the point value of drinking water, eating a serving size of vegetables and points for exercising.
Our Point system:
1 pt for an 8 oz glass of water
3 pts for a serving size of vegetables, 2 pts for eating half a serving size and 1 pt for just eating a few bites.
Then a point for every minute of exercising. (20 min bike ride = 20 points.)
Team captains get to pick teams, name teams, design their point cards, and keep track of points for the week. They are responsible for motivating team members.
By the end of the week- we tally up points and the winning team gets to pick what dessert we enjoy at our next Family Home Evening. Some times I add a surprise "Food Challenge" where I introduce something new to the family and they get extra points for trying... Sometimes it's a fitness challenge. (my boys are really into push-up contests.)
For Family Home Evening- son-One was in charge of the lesson. All the kids came home from school with an assignment to do a fire drill at home.. for homework, so that is what we did. I love it when my kids teach the lesson- it's always a surprise!
Laura

Happy Monday

We had a busy week last week. Yesterday was nice to just let things slow down. After church we just relaxed. Mind you - nothing was done around the house- so today I have my work cut out for me. But sometimes you just have to have a "Barney" day- right? Forget the house work and just follow my two year old around on his adventures.






This costume is at least 12 years old. (My sister passed it down to us- she has pictures of "Barney" days at her house when her daughter was 18 months or so.)
keeping my two year old entertained is a full time job in itself. I have always thought having one child is harder than two. Having this little guy at home by himself is a challenge. He is always busy doing his own thing... if I try to do laundry or dishes... he quickly finds something to do by himself. (TP the bathroom, get into our game closet take out all the pieces, pour the cereal on the floor, it's always something! Why can't it be..."play with the toys we've spend good money on?")
I know alot of you can relate. Just venting. It's Monday... Family Home Evening... and I'm getting my itch to have Family Fitness Teams again. I'll post more about that this week.
We'll pick our teams tonight, get team names, and start a week of challenging each other to eat more vegetables, drink more water and exercises!
Laura

When we first moved into our townhouse- I went about unpacking pictures and placing them against the walls where I wanted them hung.

My baby would crawl around and look at all the pictures. It reminded me of a Montessori philosophy of establishing a kid-friendly or empowering environment .

If you've ever been in a Montessori school pictures are hung knee high- for kids to enjoy. Tables and chairs are all kid sized, brooms and dust pans are kid accessible and kid size so they can use and clean up after themselves, etc...



Since Heath enjoyed this photo so much- I hung it at his level. But I think it's a good thing. When most the household is that size- why not put things at their height?


(You'll notice - our FHE chart isn't at their level- somethings are better hung up and out of reach. :0)





Speaking of Family Home Evening.


Last night- I prepared the lesson. One of my finer lessons.

I've been reading the 7 Habits of Effective People by Stephen Covey. (Actually- the book is hard for me to wade through- I bought the workbook which breaks each principle and chapter down into working steps. ) Anyway- I wanted to talk about our ability to choose our attitude. We might not be able to choose our circumstances, our family, the weather, etc... but we can choose our actions, our thoughts and our words. (This comes from the True to the Faith book the LDS publish.) And that we can't use situations as excuses for our mistakes or unhappiness. WE have the ability to choose.


So I cut out two pictures of boys- one happy I called "Proactive Pete" and a sad looking one I called, "Reactive Robbie".






Then I wrote some situations and possible responses. I passed out the responses and everyone got to read with expression their response. Then we decided if that was something Reactive Robbie would say or Proactive Pete.






Some of the situations were:

1. You wake up late for school and have to run out the door with just toast for breakfast.
2. You want to wear your favorite shirt for school pictures.
3. Every time your family drives to town there is traffic.
4. At P.E the teacher announces you are going to play baseball and you've never played before.

Then the responses had the same number as the situation they related to. Responses were:
1. "Oh Man! I'm late! I better hurry so I'm not late for school. This seems to happen a lot- I should set my own alarm so I can wake up on time!"

1. "MOM! WHY didn't you wake me up earlier! Now I'm late! I'm going to have the worst day ever!"

2. "Mom, where is my favorite shirt? In the Laundry!!?! Why don't you ever wash my clothes! Now I have nothing to wear! I always look like a freak for school pictures."

2. "I wonder where my favorite shirt is... oh Man! It's still dirty. I should have washed it yesterday. I guess I'll wear this shirt- it will have to do."

2. (A few days before picture day) "Mom, could you wash this shirt for me? I want to wear it for picture day. Thanks mom- you're the best!"

3. "I hate traffic. It's so boring. I hate driving. I hate our car, I hate going to town.. What a waste of time!"

3. " ugh- we're stuck in traffic again. What can I do while we sit here? Hey brother you want to play rock-paper-scissors?"

3. "Yuck! Traffic. I'm bored. What can I do while we sit here? Hey mom? Could you quiz me on my times tables? While we are in town- can we stop at the Library and pick up a book on tape so we can listen to it in the car on the way home?"

4. "My parents are the meanest! They never sign me up for any sports. I am going to be so clumsy because I've never played baseball before. I know I'm going to be last picked."

4. "Yikes! I've never played baseball before- I better listen carefully to the rules of the game. It's okay if I'm not the best at baseball. This is my first time playing. I'm just going to try my best and have fun. "

Anyway- we really hammed it up. It was funny.
I ended with a quote from Gordon B Hinkley,
" You can be excellent in every way. You can be first class. There is no need for you to be a scrub. Respect yourself. Do not dwell on unkind things others may say about you. Polish and refine whatever talents the Lord has given you. Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, with great and strong purpose in your heart. Love life and look for it's opportunities, and forever and always be loyal to the church."

I was wanting to put up the lesson as a reminder for the week. I challenged us all to try and be more Proactive. Take responsibility for our choices and choose to be happy.

I pointed out that the situation was the same for each boy- but they each chose how they were going to act. (RE-act or Pro-act.) I taped the lesson up where they can see- but I was thinking it would be nice to place a bulletin board or magnetic board there and always display the lesson. I'll post a picture later with what I do... Something- anything is better than just taping the lesson to the wall.. but I want a place where we can post what goals we are working on.

Laura

Mystery Box

This is a fun box/activity/game/family home evening lesson all in one.

I made this box for a Sharing Time in Primary about the Holy Ghost.

You put an item under the box and let kids put their hands in the holes and feel the item.

THEN they try to explain what they feel- without saying the actual item.

"It's soft, fuzzy,stretchy" but they can't say "sock'.



For younger kids- we set the box like this- and let all the kids see what the person was touching.


It's just fun to do. Kids like sticking their hands into the "unknown".

The point of the lesson is to help them learn about the Holy Ghost and recognize it. "Sometimes it's hard to explain what the Holy Ghost feels like. "

And then reference the scripture in Galatians 5:22 " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith".

Just wanted to share another Family Home Evening family favorite.

I first saw this idea- at a group Family Home evening lesson on my mission. It was a great object- lesson.

Family Home Evening

Today- just a quick idea for a Family Home Evening lesson- for little ones.

Last week Hatrick was in charge of our Family Home Evening lesson. I made a game "Love One Another" a year ago and it is still one of his favorite lessons to give.

I originally made this game to encourage my children to speak kindly and be nice to one another. As you can see- it's not fancy.

Basically- you start on any spot on the board. Everyone picks a starting point and take turns rolling the dice and moving that many spaces along the board.

If you land on a heart- you get to take a heart from the middle. If the space you land on has directions, you do what it says. (Things like "Give someone a hug", "Say something nice to someone", "Took turns with your scooter take a heart", "Shared your ice cream with a friend take a heart", etc..)

Keep rolling and moving around the board until all the hearts are gone. Under the hearts is a picture of Christ and it says, "Jesus says love everyone".

Normally we just use buttons as the game markers- Hatrick wanted to spruce them up. So we punched out images from some scrapbook pages and glued them onto buttons. I thought they turned out cute- and he felt like he contributed to "preparing the lesson".

It's a simple activity- but it generates good feelings as brothers compliment brothers and they all elect to hug me. :0) Often we have to play more than once. I have a couple sons that don't like it if Mom and Dad haven't had a chance to compliment them.

Just thought I would share. I know it can be challenging at times to come up with lessons weekly.

I added another craft to the Christmas file... I'm just going to sneak them in... here and there... so keep your eye on the file "Handmade Christmas Projects". I am loving- surfing the web and trying to find cute projects.

I know it's only October. But it's never too early... right?