The Family Fun Box!!

Last summer we took the kids to family camp.  Actually it's something we've done with the kids for the past 3 years.  It's such a great way to reinforce methods of spending intentional time with your kids and passing on your faith and God's love for them too!  It's amazing!  Last year one of the acitivites we did was to create a family fun box.  After we "decorated" it, we filled it with strips of paper that we all wrote fun things to do as a family on.  The concept was that when you have time to spend as a family you pull something out.  So fun and yet so simple!!  The great surprise is that since everyone contributed to the box, you never know what you're going to get!

Well, we've been pretty bad about taking advantage of it so we decided to make the most of the last few weeks of our summer and do as many as possible.  It's been a BLAST!!  We've been VERY busy, but the box is almost empty so the kids are busy thinking of new things to add!  Here's a peek at what we've been up to the past few days!

SWIMMING

The kids were in swimming lessons the past week so we've been at the pool EVERY day for over a week!  They love it, and now that they are all much better swimmers I can finally relax and enjoy some fun in the sun too!  This picture is of Chloe diving for rings in 4 foot water!  She's absolutely FEARLESS!  She gets about 4 rings at a time!  She can almost "swim", but right now it's more of a treading water/doggy paddle.  Still, it's leaps and bounds better than the straight sinking she did just a few short weeks ago when she jumped in the lap pool without a floatie on.

WATER BALLOON FIGHTS

 I wish I had pictures of the kids doing the balloon fights (but I didn't want to risk getting my phone & camera wet... I was a popular "target"! LOL!).  It has defnitely been a summer hi-light for us!  We've had about 4 "balloon battles", and almost every time the whole street gets in on it.  We may live out in the country, but thankfully we still live close enough to others to have neighbors!  And oh my have we been blessed to live on a fun street filled with young families!  These long summer nights have finally given us the opportunity to meet most of them.

MAKING SMORES

Once again we had lots of neighbor kids over!  I'm beginning to think we're the only parents that let our kids have sugar! LOL!

YUM!

HAVING A PARTY!

Well when Daddy takes vacation, a hot Thursday night in August is a good enough reason to set off fireworks and have a little party!  I don't think this is really what the kids had in mind when they put this suggestion in, but on such short notice it worked!   Fireworks make any ol' night feel like a party!!! (and they got to stay up really late and play with friends...riding their bikes in the dark!)

GO ON A FAMILY BIKE RIDE

This one has been tricky because neither Jarred nor I had bikes - that was until yesterday!  We decided to take some of our garage sale money and buy mountain bikes.  The kids love to ride, and especially way out here where everyone lives on at least an acre - you need a bike to get around!  We all went out and made it a little over 2 miles!  Even Chloe!  Can't wait to do it again!   I see this becoming a regular thing pretty quick!

GO BOWLING

Yesterday afternoon we loaded up the family and headed to PrimeTime.  It's like the mecca of family fun... putt putt, bowling, arcade, bumper cars, go karts, NASCAR simulators, laser tag, you name it!!!

Look at that form!  This kid can bowl!

Chloe wanted to do it "all by herself"!!!  LOL!  They even had the ramps that little kids can use, but she wasn't having it!  She's definitely our little "Miss Independent"!

Our total after 2 games.  I will pathetially admit I was the biggest loser!  Bowling is NOT my thing, but it's a small sacrifice to make in the name of family fun!  I did however reach a new personal best... I shattered my previous record of 21 with a whopping 50 in my first game!!!  Whoo Hoo!  (I know, in case you're wondering, YES, that was my actual score after all 10 frames!!! LOL!)  I was however once again humbled back to a measly 35 on game 2 AND I broke a nail! Ugh!

PLAY GAMES

After bowling we decided to venture into the arcade!  Can you say money pit????  Those games can get so addictive, especially when you're competitive like we are!  LOL!  But it was fun and bonus, now we have about 25 more tiny plastic "treasures" scattered all over the house!  LOL!

Trying to get the bonus tickets!

Showing off all their "loot"!  LOL!

HAVE A FAMILY CAMPOUT/SLUMBER PARTY

  I had to combine these two "suggestions" because we were running out of days.  We were going to try to take the kids out to the Abilene State Park to go camping, but with the high temperatures being in the 100's with no end in sight we decided to cut our losses and have a backyard campout.  In my opinion it was just as much fun!

SUCCESS!!!

  This tent has all kinds of fun surprises, a "doggy door" (which the kids use as their own secret door), and even a closet!!!  Whoo Hoo!

All the "comforts" of home!  Not sure they've ever been allowed to play video games before bed, but it was a special night!

Chloe was perfectly content to play with her Zhu Zhu pet and a flashlight.  She was obsessed with all the  shadows!

 

Well, that's about all we could squeeze into 3 days and Jarred is leaving town this afternoon.  We have done a few other activites from the box in the past few months: "make your own pizza night", "banana split party", "getting ice cream", "going to the park", "having a picnic", "go fishing", "family movie night", "family game night", etc.  The possibilites are endless!!  I'm so looking forward to filling the box back up!  All this time as a family has made me crave doing things together that much more!  I feel so blessed!  However, these past few days have worn me out.  I'm thinking I'm going to add "take a family nap" in the box! LOL!