Three Things : Weekdays + Creative Family Giveaway

Our favorite thing to do together as a family is our Friday night Family movie night. It's something the kids look foward to all week long. No computers, cell phones, or even craft projects are allowed in the living room during the movie. The kids like having DH and I all to themselves. I like that it's the only time of the week I can convince my 8yr old son to sit in my lap!

I have twin grandbabies (now 2-1/2 years old) that are just ripe for doing creative things. We even have a small "scrap table" just their size where we can make things. I'd love a copy of the book.

Walking to the park with our 11 year old Lab Ben is a favourite "family" moment. Even though our kids our 18 & 23, it's something we all love to do. My son & I will often bring our cameras along and we've taken some great photos through the years on these walks.

When weather permits, our fave thing to do is go camping... I have 3 boys so there's never a dull moment. = )
At other times of the year, we have some pretty great times around the dinner table, whether sharing a meal, playing a game, or just being silly and goofing off.
Thanks for the post, some pretty great reading here!

We love cooking together, cupcakes is a fav. Outdoor sports are a good time too, soccer especially.

Our favorite activity is to go to the park at Fort Niagara up on Lake Ontario and have a picnic. It can be any time of year and we go there to eat, play and explore. It doesn't hurt that they have a wonderful series of playgrounds for the kids either. Some nice fun family time.

A while ago we established a culture night where we read about famous artists together, listened to jazz or classical music, or read a classic novel outloud. We sit by the fire, if it's cold, and have some fun snacks, and just lift the cultural climate in our home. The kids just love culture night because they get mom and dad's undivided attention and have a lot of fun learning.

I am a very creative person. I love the magic of imagining something and seeing it come to life. Right now our family is all over the place. My husband and I both work full time. I also go to school full time and my husband has a second job. And we have a four year old. So it was important to us to find a hobby that would involve the whole family. We were lucky enough last year to stumble on Reenacting. Revolutionary War reenacting to be more specific. It is such a blast. We get to spend 3 days outside with the entire family. We get to camp out (which we love) and we get to immerse ourselves in History (which we love even more) and we are making memories that will last a lifetime. I even started a blog to document our time in this hobby. It’s www.revwar.blogspot.com and is aptly named “My Crazy RevWar Life.” And let me tell you I get some amazing pictures at these events, between that and the family time we get, I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Rachel

Wow- We spend a lot of time together as a family since my husband is able to work from home most of the time, but this can also make it more important for us to find time to sit down and really just be together. Typically, this happens at dinner time. We really try to make an effort to really connect through conversation and to teach our son how to show interest in the lives of others.

Hi Ali,
Love your blog.
Traveling brings us closer together by experiencing new things and reconnecting with our extended family. We feel fortunate to be together and appreciate each other more.
Wendy

We love to go to zoos. Our kids like it, we like watching them, and the time together is priceless.
We also all watch Iron Chef America every Sunday night...but that probably isn't a real bonding moment. But, our 3-year-old and 8-year-old love it. And, we all have to watch together or they won't watch.

okay, this may seem really lame, but my kids are older, so we love to play the Wii and pretend that we are doing somekind of Olympics. Totally fun, a little active, and free (sorta). :)

Our fave family thing is a toss up between veg night (where we rent a ton of kid and adult friendly movies, get a fruit and veggie tray from the store and just hang out) or painting night (we keep lots of canvas on hand and every couple of weeks we will bust out the paint, brushes and canvases and create our own family gallery).
Hugs! Kinsey

My all-time favorite family time is always dinner time. We get to talk about how our day went and everything that's going on in our lives. It's a good time to catch up while enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal.

We love to go skiing with my family. We used to go every Saturday and I can't wait till our baby is big enough so we can continue that.

We love cooking together, especially baking. My two-year-old will sit on the counter and watch as we chop, grate, boil, etc. My four-year-old will watch the pots so they don't boil over, or help add or measure out ingredients. My husband is big on cooking, so he always gets into the action too. Now if only I could get them all to help with the clean up...

Spending time together outside...playing at the park, flying kites, watering the flowers...just enjoying the great outdoors!

Honestly, one of our favorites is scrapbooking. When ever I sit down to work on a page I have an attentive audience! Their favorite surprise is a page made for their books! [Well, that or going out to eat!]

Music! My 3 year-old son has his favorites and we turn on iTunes, dance and chase like crazy. We are sure to include our 10 month-old, too. She giggles and dances as she enjoys everyone having a good time. Simple, and free!

Singular? Wow, ok. Planting & digging in the dirt. Playing croquet or badminton (we're all really bad, lots of laughs). Camping - we do everything together when we camp. Plan, drive, cook, clean, eat simple foods in the fresh air, get really dirty or wet and then roast marshamellows as my 3 year old calls them. 2 week trip coming up. Yay! Love her blog, OMG, I wanna be her best friend now. Thanks for the link.

we travel together.
and everyone thinks we're crazy for it. but we take our kiddos to every single place we've been to all over europe. it makes our trips ten times harder, but also that much more special. they just get so excited about stuff. it's awesome. :)

Ooo, I've been wanting this book! Our family fun includes board & card games of course, nature walks and bike rides. This year will be the first year our youngest is old enough to help sell at the farmers market, so that's become something we enjoy doing together as a family as well.

Our favorite thing is games: Sorry, Battleship, Uno, Hit the Deck. We love to play games together.

Wow! As I am thinking about this I am suprised at how many traditions we have unconciously started with our 3 kids. The time I treasure the most right now is bedtime storytime. My oldest is 6 and can read pretty much anything on his own but is still at the age were he likes me to read to him. Sitting on the bed with the boys while nursing my daughter, the smell of baby lotion in the air, watching them get wrapped up in a story will be a memory that I will cherish forever. Thanks for making me stop for a moment and think about so many wonderful things. I hope I win that book too! :)

Our favorite family time together is Sunday morning at the Granger Cafe. Every Sunday we make breakfast, drink coffee and read the Sunday Paper on our patio (weather permitting of course). The kids take turns with the funnies, My husband works on the crossword and I look at the ads! This book looks fabulous and I love your three things this week too.