a Year's worth of fun

Instagram knew the new year was coming and kept blowing up my feed with "12 months of..." ideas. I saw date nights, mother/daughter days, girl's nights in, the list was endless. My family and I do plenty, but I thought this would be a fun little craft for me to give my family something to look forward to. It also guaranteed one on one quality time during stressful or hectic weeks. I called my friend, scheduled a chill day, and packed all the scrap paper and markers. 

We tried to theme out each month depending on if we are camping, traveling, or doing something local. My friend joined in and did some of the same ideas for her daughters, so we can have fun together. They are not all outings or expensive. Some are easy, at home events. Some are nature based or food based. We switched it up. 

I ended up doing a year's worth of activities for my husband, too. I had the time. I had the paper. Why not? One huge sheet of paper folded in an envelope and done. 

January: plan a resale shopping day and do lunch. Husband: Let your wife take you to dinner (we have some giftcards to use).

February: watch the movie Valentines Day and bake heart shaped cookies. Husband: go see a comedian at the Metrocentre. And so on and so forth. Picnics, Souptober, a day at the beach, and so much more will be coming. 

I love all the New Year's challenges so much more than resolutions. They give us something to focus on for growth and happiness. Resolutions make me feel committed and then disappointed if I fail or forget. I even added directions to the envelope: Open on the first of the month. Then we discuss together and put it on the calendar so the plan is legit. Here is to a Year's worth of fun!!!

the bucket list has been completed!

Ah, the summer bucket list. We started doing this about 5 years ago. We each pick 5 activites to accomplish, big or small, crazy or calm. I usually try to pick an at home activity to counteract all the driving and spending my kid chooses to do, a cooking or crafting project, and a fun day trip. Then I fill in the rest with whatever fun we haven't seen or done.

This summer I was delightfully pleased to see a variety on this list. I was even able to one-up my little one-upper by taking her mall day (she envisioned Cherryvale Mall) to the next level. I managed to squeeze in the Mall of America without ruining the surprise. She shocked me with a baking day, but to add a twist, she wanted to donate the stuff we made. I killed two birds with one stone by hosting a playdate where we baked and our friend took half home. Everyone wins!

I hope our tradition continues as she ages. I know I will not be cool mom forever, but for now I have nailed it. Once this bucket list ends, I don't know what I will do! I got SO many thank you's this summer, so many arm in arm walks, so many snuggles and a few mother-daughter sleepovers. My heart is full. My cup runneth over. And to think, I have a list of fun to thank.

All ten items are scratched off. We nailed it. Vini, Vidi, Vicci. Farewell summer of fun. Farewell (for now) laughter and shenanigans!

This is how we do... gifts

You know how you spend a TON of money on that one gift that just turns out to be a novelty item your kids discard shortly after? I felt the same way when we bought our Xbox Kinect. It was great at first. My stepson loved the graphics and all the cool features. Then the weather got warm and it became a glorified DVD player.

Now that my smallest is bigger, she LOVES this thing! Not only do I work out from home a lot (Biggest Loser, Zumba, and Dance Central are my favorites), we can use it for so much more. On snow days when we can't really go anywhere we have bowling marathons. We dance when we are bored. We play Twister the really cool, really fun way if friends come over.

Depending on your kids, you can get lots of different games. The ninja game was NOT a big hit, but Disney is. My daughter can walk around Disney, get autographs, play games with individual characters and so much more. Since she is like me and definitely likes to move, we use the Kinect a LOT when it is too hot, too cold, too rainy.

I doubt that we will invest in many more games now that my stepson has gone off to college. My daughter seems pleased with the games that we actually have. I am sure some day, they will come up with something new to draw her attention in. For now, we really like to do Xbox adventures. Our favorite feature is the snapshots of you in live action. You can save them to your account to laugh at yourselves in all that free time that's lying around...

Featured here is my daughter attempting to smack my bottom during an intense game of Xbox adventures. We were trying to plug the holes in a ship and I am pretty sure we laughed more than played, but for 20 minutes, we were together. Laughing. Creating memories. Having a grand ol' time.