Three Things : Weekdays + Creative Family Giveaway

I love Amanda's blog too and check in there often! My family plays cards together. We have so much fun and there's always a lot of talking and bonding. Playing games with my family has created some of my fondest memories!

I would say it would have to be eating together...we all love to eat! Looking forward to hot weather to be able to swim and grill out and just hang out in the backyard as a family. And start our Sunday night neighborhood cookouts!

My favorite family time is when me, my husband and 2 kids bake together. The kids help in sifting the flour, measuring & putting muffin paper cups on the pan. The best part is eating together what we baked!

I'm so thankful that we are a close and very active family. I think my fave thing we do as a family is to watch an outdoor movie. During the summer everyone's home and we hook up the projector on the porch, light the tikki torches, grab a bowl of ice cream, and gather on bean bags under the stars. It's simple and free and one of those things that I can't wait to do again!

I have two sons - a 2-year old and 9-year old and we love to dance together. It's so much fun. The music is loud and everybody dances his own dance. We sing and dance, laugh and play. That is our favourite time of the day!

As new parents, our favorite time is cuddling up in bed with little Cooper, oohing and aahing over his sweet perfection and talking about our hopes and dreams for him and our family.

Good morning Ali,
We make sure to take all our meals on weekends together and do an outing [playground, science museum, or a simple drink/cookies at a local bakery/cafe]... during the week our schedule is so ectic that it feels really good to make time just for the 4 of us [my children are 5 and 2].

The things we do that keep us together is simple. Eating dinner and family walks/bike rides. I usually work nights so our time together is limited but eating dinner together has always been important to me. And since I just got laid off just having the evenings with both of my men is special. The whole being there is high on my list too.

Favorite thing is eating dinner outside on the patio, where there are only "natural" distractions which are nice, and we really focus on each other. With a 4 1/2 year old and a 9 year old, we are now able to start enjoying playing games together (board games, esp. the Cranium games or Rukshuk, even Charades)... used to be just Candyland or Chutes-n-Ladders worked, but horizons are expanding and the fun is increasing :-)

This weekend, I helped my son weed the flower bed. It gave us some time to talk. I keep reminding myself to take advantage of chores (washing dishes, pulling weeds) to have conversations with my children and not just make it a to do list item. I want my favorite thing we do together to be "we work together".

With so much hussle and bussle in our daily lives I have come to treasure our camping weekends-no TV, no video, just old fashion fun--and some hard work which doesn't seem like work when you are doing it together.

I would have to say two things we enjoy as a family which allow us to get to know each other are eating together and playing games together.

In our family we have pizza, movie night nearly every Friday night. We also enjoy going together to worship service on Sunday. Usually we go for a walk, fishing or something else that involves nature and exercise during the weekend too.

My favorite is thing is taking our evening walks. Even my two year old son now says "evening walk" after dinner - so cute. It's such a great time to unwind, relax, talk, breathe in the fresh air, and appreciate the beauty around us! :) Have a good one!

My favorite thing is to sit around and listen to music, dance and watch our children dance and sing.

family walks in the neighborhood! get's us all together without interuption...

At the end of the day, bathtime for the kids. They are usually relaxed, there's no distractions (like tv or radio) and we all get to have a chat and a laugh. And then of course the kisses and cuddles and into bed and the last minute chats of what tomorrow will bring.
This is my favourite time as a family.

What a neat idea for a book. Our favorite thing to do together is to travel. Whether we go on a quick one night trip to a state park lodge or a long Disney cruise, we love having unscheduled time together. Between both my DH and I working full time and my 5 year old DD and all her activities, it is so nice just to relax and do nothing together.

We have 6 children in our family and we all love to retell funny family stories and memories when we are all togther. I did not want to lose these family stories and so in the summer, the kids assignment is to write down one favorite family story each week. The older kids or mom help the kids who cannot write yet. I have collected the stories in a folder over the years and this summer we are going to publish the stories in a small square hardcover book called Reitz Family Stories. You can do this fairly cheaply on line (less than $20) in one of the many publishing sites like blurb.com. The kids favorite activity is NOT writing the stories. But reading and retelling the stories definitely is a highlight and brings us all closer as a family.

My two little boys LOVE picnics! It doesn't matter to them if we travel to a park with blanket & basket in tow, or eat delivered pizza on the back porch. On Mother's Day we planned to picnic in a state park...the weather didn't cooperate, so we had an "indoor" picnic on the family room floor. They thought it was great!

We love to hit the local playgrounds and play tag. It's fun just you get out and play with them.

Hi Ali - I love your blog, your ideas, and your giveaways!! For us, the one activity that we look forward to is a simple walk to the beach near where we live. A lot of bonding takes places when we do this, which is not often enough, sadly, due to our busy schedules. We must try to do this more often. Thanks!

Our sons are grown and married and we find more time to spend with them than we ever thought! We love family dinners, sitting outside on someone's deck and watch the little ones play together. But most of all, we love to LAUGH together. Laughter is so healing, so wonderful and so defines who WE are!

I follow Amanda's blog and would love her new book! DH travels alot, so my favorite time with the kids when he's away is bedtime. They both love foot rubs, back rubs, and neck rubs. It's great winding down/connecting time. When he's home, we like to play tennis (we're not very good!) go crabbing or fishing, watch outdoor movies in the summer, and have weekend movie nights inside, in the winter.

One of my favorite things to do is go to my parents house on a summer night and let the kids run wild on their 3 acres...all of us only have small city lots, so it's a real treat seeing the kids so free and happy.