Fun with the Family
With our lives growing more busy it is so important to us to carve out time dedicated to doing something as a family. To help us make the most of the time we have, I created a Family section in my HMB. In this section I keep a bunch of printables to help us focus our energy more on what we’re going to do, and less on planning it.
Because we like to just to take off for a day out every once in a while I created this day trip planner check list to help make leaving easy and simple.
This has come in handy on many occasions. Once I realized I was packing them same things every time, I decided it was time to simplify it with a check list. The quicker we can get out the door, the more time we have for fun!
When we first found out that Travis got the transfer and we were going to be moving, I put together a printable to help us keep track of the places we want to go and thing we want to do.
This printable allows me to keep track of any information we might need, including admission rates, and whether it is something worth a repeat visit. It’s great having information like this at my finger tips.
With those two printables, planning a family days takes no time at all. Which means that we can also take advantage of spur moment family times. Usually though, our family time is spent on things like Family Movie Night.
And this little baby helps me keep track of movies we want to see, as well as any special snack/treats I want to make up or that the kids would like to have. Usually these are something I can make ahead of time, and we try to keep it low key. Keeping the focus on having fun together not about having treats and goodies (those some of those sprinkled in is a must for this Momma)
I actually thought this was the perfect number of items in my Family section. I thought about creating elaborate planners for planning theme nights and so on, but that’s not who this family is. We’re more casual, preferring a little less structure and a little more go with the flow when it comes to family time. However, there is one form of family fun that has started to become more and more popular in our family, Family Game Night.
To be honest, we haven’t actually planned a Family Game Night, but we have had lots of fun playing games as a family. Snakes and Ladder, Go Fish, Crazy Eights … the list goes on. Travis and I have started talking about picking up some board games, since the ones we had when our Teen was younger have slowly but surely made their way to board game heaven. To help us keep track of everything, here’s the printable I created.
Keeping with the tradition of keeping it simple, this printable is just a reference sheet. A place to list games we like and games we want to try or buy, and then a space for game night friendly meals; a meal that’s quick to put together, and requires little interruption of the games in progress, or that’s ok to eat while we play. Same thing with snacks, something that will be easy to nibble while playing, that’s not going to be sticky.
I love that as our children grow, so do the things we can do together. With the big gap in ages between the boys, it can be a struggle to find something that appeals to everyone. And now that our Teen has entered the age of part-time jobs and life outside the home, being able to grab these moments when we can means so much to me.
This bring us to the end of the HMB revamp! I had a lot of fun putting this together. Next week, I’ll share pictures of how I put mine together. As always, to snag a copy for yourself, click the image of any of the printables. Just please remember that they are for personal use only.
What do you and your family do for fun? Are you a games night kind of family, or do you do something different? Any recommendations for board or card games that are fun for all ages?
