Three Things : Weekdays + Creative Family Giveaway

Yard work. Think about it. All of you working together toward a common goal. Nothing like some hot sweaty yard work to bring a family closer together (actually, not physically closer lol)But, the feeling of an accomplished task is a good feeling, + that feeling you always get looking at a freshly mowed lawn.

We really like to take walks around our neighborhood. Since we're still in an apartment and we don't have a backyard, the neighborhood has to do for now. I can't wait until we have our own space, because then we'll start doing fun family camp-outs in the backyard. For now I have to settle for the ones in the living room. :)

Oh, this book looks like a little treasure! Let's see...One of the activities I love doing as a family is snuggling in my son's bed while we read a story together. :)

Sunday night dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant. No tv, no phones, live guitar music to sing. Very nice!

Our favorite thing was camping ... we'd play the "they might be giants" CD by Flood and sing those goofy songs all the way to the campground ... learning to enjoy our kids' music helped us bond together during those times. Our kids early teens during those days - before that I was a single mom/full time engineering student/part time employee with no time to play.
Now that we have grandchildren we are often astounded that our biggest regret is that we didn't plan out regular blocks of time to just play (as we do with our grandchildren.) Who would have thought that would have been so important? We see the difference it makes in the lives of our grandchildren and we're really sad that we just didn't get it when our kids were little.
Great blog Ali! I read it every day!

Ooh, neat book! One of my favorite things to do with my family is to walk around the local arboretum and see the current blooms. It's amazing to go a couple of weeks apart and see a totally different place and new colors!

Right now, the favorite thing is gardening as a family...the past two weekends have been filled with digging and planting, followed by the 3 of us eating popsicles as a reward for our hard work.

At 25 I still enjoy telling and hearing family stories. No matter which family member I am spending time with, I enjoy listening to what they have to say. It has lead to many great scrapbooking layouts, with great stories to go with them.

We do lots of things together, but we're always looking for new ideas. We ride bikes together, go for walks, go to family night at the Y, watch movies, go on road trips, have breakfast and dinner together (almost) every day -- not an easy job with 4 people all headed off in different directions through the day, but we make it work. We all take pictures together too, and we all have our own cameras -- 30D's for the grownups, a Canon point-and-shoot for the 8 year old, and a little digital with a couple of games on it for the 3 year old.
This book looks wonderful -- I will have to check it out!

As a family since our kids are still young we love to walk down at the park on Sundays and any day that we are just energy less. My Daughter Addisyn who is two also lover to go to the high school and fly daddy's plane with him, she thinks it is hilarious. Time well spent together, since my husband works nights and goes to school during the day!

For this family of five, there is nothing like takin' it easy on a Saturday morning at home, then heading out to wherever the day takes us. We usually have an initial stop to make, and then I let the kids come up with a feasible idea or ideas about where we might go or what we might do. I'll have to admit, though, an entire day at the pool with a cookout afterwards is a close second! Hurray for summer!

I would give it to the Puerto Rican woman across the street who has three little girls: Melissa, 6; Melanie, 4; and Maria, 2. She would eat that book up and do all the projects with the three little monkeys!

Hi Ali,
I love your pages from Today and Yesterday. We love to be outdoors together,take hikes,go bike riding, play ball, even just hanging out in the backyard and having a bar-b-q. I'd love to get more ideas from the book-my girls and even my son love to do projects all the time and I'm always looking for more creative ideas!

My favorite thing to do with our little family of 3, is to do a 'family hug'. Now my 5 year old son asks for it on his own! Doesn't matter when or where, just matters that someone pipes up, 'family hug!', and it instantly brings a smile to our faces and brings us all a little closer, literally!

This is going to sound so HOKEY to a lot of people, but my extended family on my mom's side LOVES TO kareoke. NO, we don't go to kareoke bars, we have the equipment set up in my grandmother's home she lived in before she passed away.
We LOve to sing and laugh and just be together! btw, how in the heck do you spell kareoke?

It may seem simple, but my favorite thing to do with my husband is to eat dinner together!

One of our favourite things is to sit around after dinner painting - I do acrylics, my mother watercolour and father oils whilst my sister makes jewellery and husband varies his activity; just being together. The other is spending the afternoon at the beach building sandcastles - we are big kids!
Claire

My favorite thing as a family...a time of prayer each night. It's vital to the very core of our family and lives. Thanks for the info on that book. I am one that really would benefit from that...as I struggle more often than not with issues that stop me from being creative.

Hello Ali, one of our favourite things to do (I have a 3 yo daughter) is "play craft" as its referred to. Basically playing with paint, drawing, colouring, cutting, sticking, gluing. Doing this together always reminds me that she is my biggest teacher and that I have much I can learn from the way she simply just creates.

My favorite family thing to do is play games. It usually gets everyone into a "playful" mood and laughing. Totally relaxing..

One of our favorite things to do together is have dinner as a family. We strive for as many nights as possible, which isn't always easy. Our 4 kids love the time together, and so do we. It's simple, and we always enjoy our time together after a long day.

Hi Ali,
I love your layouts. One of my favourite ways to be creative is just to include my son in everything we do during the day and to make it accessible to and for him. He is four. Today, we helped grandpa replace boards in his deck and we helped grandma to plant flowers in her window boxes. We made dinner together and we built farming implements with our lego blocks.
Kelly

yikes... so many comments! You are such an inspiration to crafty people of all types! Thanks for the three things links - I really like the paper valise ... found some cool "dead head" tags! very unique vintage finds! Love to browse the shops you find!
Sincerely,
Anna

HI Ali,
Believe it or not one of our favourite things to do together is the grocery shopping. We make a real event of it. We stop for coffee and gingerbread biscuits for our 3-year-old twins. Then it's to the supermarket for lots of trolley spinning, can throwing and paper ripping (the shopping list!!), then we visit our friends at the chicken shop and the deli. We know everyone and everyone knows us. It's a great way to spend our Saturday morning before Daddy heads of to tennis!

My family is so important and time can be shorter than we think so it is vital to enjoy the little moments and stop and 'smell the roses' and not get caught up in the busy-ness of life. The book sounds great. I too love the calendar and date ideas.
thanks for sharing
Leonie