Head out to your nearest park, add in a few snacks and drinks, and then commence to painting. Obviously, you do not have to be talented or creative to participate. Just have fun pretending to professionally paint your surroundings with your finger paints. Bring sponges to make textures or use some of the leaves or branches you find. You can create your art separately or you can make make one masterpiece together by taking only one canvas. To spend a few hours just having fun, bring construction paper packs so you can go through as many as you like. Don't forget to bring wet wipes for after to clean up your hands and maybe an apron or old shirts while painting.
Trying to come up with a quick and easy date idea? What about a finger paint date. Pick up some finger paints, a cheap canvas or poster board, and easels, if possible. If you cannot locate an easel then don't worry, you can put the canvas in your lap and paint.
Head out to your nearest park, add in a few snacks and drinks, and then commence to painting. Obviously, you do not have to be talented or creative to participate. Just have fun pretending to professionally paint your surroundings with your finger paints. Bring sponges to make textures or use some of the leaves or branches you find. You can create your art separately or you can make make one masterpiece together by taking only one canvas. To spend a few hours just having fun, bring construction paper packs so you can go through as many as you like. Don't forget to bring wet wipes for after to clean up your hands and maybe an apron or old shirts while painting.
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It is that time of year again: Spring cleaning time! While it might be a great idea for your mental well-being to open all the windows and doors in your home and air out the house after spending the winter keeping the warmth (and all the winter germs) inside, it can be a complete headache trying to get help from the rest of the family. This is a perfect time to initiate a family bingo game with the bingo squares representing chores. Take a little time before the big weekend clean and download one of the free bingo cards online, one for every member of the family. Write down all to the chores you want done. Make sure and put different chores on each person's cards so that you get the most chores accomplished. If you want a chore done extra well, put it on a few of the players' cards. Maybe not write the exact same chore, but rather something like "clean the kitchen" and, on another one, "deep clean the stove". Make the prizes won are based on the number of lines they complete. So for one diagonal they win, lets say, two hours of uninterrupted video game time, for two lines completed, a movie with popcorn and a drink. By making the prizes stackable, they are encouraged to move themselves up on lines finished to earn the big prize. For a total black out they win the big prize. Of course, you know your family and what will motivate them, so plan your prizes accordingly. If you are like most families, the first thing you are thinking is that there is no way it would be anything but a speed-fest, with everyone quickly trying to get through every single chore to win the prizes. Put a stop to the chores not being done correctly by letting them know upfront that if the chore is not done to your satisfaction, they lose the right to that whole bingo line and will have to move onto the next. Be upfront with what you expect. Tell them they need to ask you what you want done BEFORE they start the project. They can write down your description as well or else you can just have your description for each chore written in advance for reference. Depending on the age of the kids, you might give one opportunity to make up a mistake in the case of trying for the blackout. This way they are not discouraged from trying if they make a mistake early on. It can be the black out (1) mulligan rule. but it is only good when trying for black out. Are you looking for some bonding time away from the video games and the latest and greatest toy? How about getting back to the basics and exploring some of the things you enjoyed or perhaps something that you would have loved to have enjoyed. Fly a kite. This use to be a many-hours-long activity for kids that has gone by the wayside to video games. Consider taking a trip to your local toy store and picking out a fun kite. Do any of you remember the ones that looked like bats that had eyes on them? Those were my personal favorite. Spend the day at the local park teaching him how to fly a kite. This is a great opportunity to talk about the weather, literally. Visit a Barber Shop together. I mean a good old fashion barber shop, not the up-to-date salon with a chair station. Make a day out of it and hit an old diner or soda shop and then head over to sit in the big chair and get haircuts. This is a great way to just hang out, guy-to-guy, and spend a day together. Build a rocket or an active volcano. Yes, I know, those days spent finishing a class project can fill your mind with terror of taking on another "typical" art project, but this time, make it for fun, not a grade. Work on a car together. This use to be a right of passage for fathers to teach their sons how to work on a car before they could ever get behind the wheel, but sadly, a lot of men really have either no time or no idea how to work on their car. Start with the basics, change your oil, change a tire, check the air pressure in the tire. No idea how to do any of that? Make it a project to learn together. This not only teaches them about the basics of how a car works, but also gives them the satisfaction of a job well done. Bowling is a fun family activity that most all ages can enjoy with reasonable costs and discount coupons found online. Bowling used to be very popular, but it has really lost a lot of its attraction with alleys being worn down except for the newest additions in cosmic bowling. I still, however, love bowling as a family and the more run down the alley, the more nostalgic it feels. You can go bowling as usual or you can add a bit of a twist to your outing by playing as couples or in a group. First, pick your partner. This can be a couples' date night or a multi-generation partnership with grandparents playing with a grandchild. The partners wear matching colored shirts or you can be creative and make "bowling team shirts". Then, the partners play against the other members as a team. One person throws the first ball and then their partner throws the next. Make sure and switch each time so you rotate who throws the ball first. The score is tallied as a team. I like this activity if you have a group of bowlers that are at different levels of ability, to equalize the playing field. This will, more than likely, become ultra-competitive and, therefore, be a fun bonding time! So, put together players in your group that would benefit from working together. Instead of it being an individual sport, every score is dependent on the other player. So scream, cheer, and high five your teammate into getting the best score. Did you know that you can actually view animals at some of the most popular zoos right online? Yep, you can take a trip to a zoo you have always wanted to visit right from the comfort of your own home. You can check out many of the must-see exhibits 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Most systems do require you to download an Adobe Flashplayer to view. Depending on the time of year you are viewing, you may see babies born, or eggs hatching. A year or so ago, and eagle sanctuary on one of the view cams left kids and adults alike staring at the camera for hours on end to catch a glimpse of the hatching eagles all the way through their first attempts at flight. The CamZone website features zoos all over the world If you are like me, then the idea of making time to get together with your girlfriends sounds fabulous. The reality, however, is that we do not have as much time in our busy lives to set up anything more than a lunch date. So, what about mixing a little bit of chore with a lot of fun. Have everyone in the group make a freezer dinner meal and then do an exchange. Start by sending out an Evite or email to explain: I am tired of cooking all day- Meal Entree Exchange: I would love to get together with my very best friends, but, since we are all so busy, how about we work together and also have time to visit! @ My house, Jan,1, 1111 starting at 6 pm Details: Each person brings over one homemade entree (enough to serve 4 people) frozen. Place the entree in a disposable tin, covered with plastic wrap first and then aluminum foil. (to prevent freezer burn) Mark directions to reheat on the foil. We will be doing the exchange while visiting, enjoying cocktails, and snacks. Please make sure and RSVP 10 days prior to make sure we have enough food to exchange. (So if you have 10 people coming, make 10 frozen dishes) which obviously includes one for yourself that you will leave at home in your freezer. The best part of this is now you have 10 meals for your family and a ladies' get-together! Some groups may choose to make all the meals together at the get-together, but personally, I feel it can get confusing in the kitchen and most people know how to make one entree really well in their own kitchen. You time is cut significantly since you are making a large batch of the same item and splitting it up instead of making 10 separate entrees with individual cook times and lots of ingredients. Also, the get-together is spent relaxing and not having to cook anything! Make sure you ask for any allergies from your guest and send it out so no one cooks with that ingredient. One of the hardest things to do is to get kids to give up their old toys. Not because they actually use them, but because, often times, they have great memories associated with them and they are sure they will want to play with them again. An easy way to get them to clean out their closets and toy chests is to have a goodbye party for them. Ask your kids to round up all of their old toys that they have not played with in a while and have a full day of play with those special toys. Give them carte blanc play with them in the living room or outside for a few hours, maybe even have a goodbye cake as a treat and then, after the goodbye play is all done, have buckets of soap and water for them to clean the toys to go to their new owner. Having volunteered in a charity thrift store, I have seen bags of broken and dirty toys come in and making them look fresh was very time consumming and ends up taking away from the time we could have spent getting the toys to the proper new owners. By donating clean (and minorly repaired) toys that have been gently cleaned by loving pre-owners, the recipients will get a toy that is already in great condition. This also helps the kids see how valuable the gift they are giving away is and often times makes them decide to give away other old possessions to help someone out in need. A few years back, our family hosted an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party. It took a little planning, but it turned out fantastic! We started by sending out invitations to our party with our theme (cute little cutouts with the "White Rabbit" saying "Don't be late") and asked people to come in costume. Let me begin by saying that the costumes were amazing. We had Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum show up as well as the Queen of Hearts, the Mad hatter, the March Hare-White Rabbit, and, of course, Alice. I had purchased some mini-teacups and had them presented on the counter when our guests arrived along with a small tea spoon and a colorful tea bag in each. These became our "thanks for coming" take-home gift. Online, I had found theme decorations. Salt and pepper shakers, a tea pot, cups and saucers, and mini decorations. Our home was decorated with all things Alice in Wonderland. We visited, played Alice in Wonderland the movie, had different card games out, enjoyed a tea party, as well as hosted a best-costume contest. You could certainly add croquet if you are doing an outdoor, garden-party theme. For food, we stayed in tea party mode with tea sandwiches, red M&M's for the guests "to stay in Wonderland", and our beverages with a sign that said "Drink Me to become smaller". Chips and dip were placed in Cheshire Cat bowls. Use your imagination on your decorations. Since this tea party was also called the "Unbirthday Party" this would make a great birthday party theme for someone who no longer wants to celebrate their age, like me! Valentine's day does not need to be stressful or super costly. Have some fun by making your day completely goofy with an overkill on romantic gestures! 1) Make each other cards with crayons. You can do this as an activity together or your cards can be pre-made. 2) Go on a walk and pick your Valentine a flower. Make sure and present it to him/her with over-exaggeration. 3) Watch a cheesy valentine movie together. The more goofy romantic the better. 4) Make each other the "coupons" with funny things like "I will pick up your socks one time without rolling my eyes". 5) Cook spaghetti for dinner and try to do the lady and the tramp maneuver with a piece of spaghetti. I absolutely love that a few fun companies have come out with Giant Marshmallows called Giant-roasters! Not just because I think marshmallows are yummy, but also because there are so many fun activities you can actually do with these hunks of fluff. If you are stuck indoors for the day because of the cold, you can play a toss in the bucket game with the puffs. Set two buckets on opposite ends and take turns seeing how many each player can get in a bowl. If you are feeling crafty, then make snowmen with them by using straight pretzels to anchor them together and, of course, use lots of edible decorations to make the face. If you are hungry, you can get creative by making crazy big s'mores. Love these! Keep a few on hand for the next at-home day. |
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