Monday, April 12, 2010

Family Night Idea & Giveaway!

Good morning - hope you all had a great weekend! Today, let's talk Family Nights! We have been enjoying being outside more and just being together though I haven't been planning much.

I was contacted about giving away this soccer goal and thought it would make a fun Family Night activity! So, please leave a comment before Tuesday, April 13 at 10 pm EST to be entered for the drawing. Just tell me what you've been up to for Family Nights lately! Winner will be chosen at random and announced on Wednesday.

Reminder - if I have no way of contacting you, I will need to draw a new winner. Nearly everytime I host a giveaway - the winner does not have contact info and I have to draw at least one more time!

83 comments:

Rebecca said...

Hi Monica -

We love to do family nights too. Last night we biked around the neighborhood, ran through the sprinklers while they watered the grass and had ice cream sundaes (on Sunday!). Not a big theme, but having fun together. We'd have a lot of fun with the soccer goal!

Thanks.
tabasko4@verizon.net

Jeremiah and Stephenie said...

I am not as purposeful about family nights as I would like to be. That said, we do spend most evenings together as a family and lately we have been spending our evenings outside on the swing set that we built together. I would love to be "with it" enough to have a theme for the whole evening and make it really special, but can't seem to do it.

This activity looks great! My 6 children would absolutely love this and it would make a great family activity.

Thank you!
Stephenie
stephjem95(at)gmail(dot)com

Sarah said...

Our family nights tend to lean towards movie nights! We have a couple of little folk who just love to hold their individual bowls of popcorn and sit on the couch all grown-up! We even take pictures of them eating their snack because they are so proud.

Anonymous said...

Well our last real family night was on Easter Sunday.
You see my "little ones" are all grown up two with children of their own.
We sat around after dinner that night and played trivia reading off questions that had been printed on our after dinner snack of pringles(chips) They came that way and I plan to write to the company complimenting them and asking where I can keep getting them!
I have two very active grandchildren so this would be perfect.
Oh a semi-family (it was just my 20 year old dd and I) watched The Blind Side and ate deli sandwiches this weekend.
I recommend this movie for family watching
God bless,
Helen(grammea)
grammea22@verizon.net

Amy @ Hope Is the Word said...

Oops--I forgot to leave my email, even after your reminder. Sorry!

It's hopeistheword at gmail dot com

Amy @ Hope Is the Word said...

My girls would love this!

I admit that I'm not very good at planning family nights. However, we're very good at doing things together as a family. Does that count? ;-)

Seriously, though, I would like to be more intentional about it. Your posts always inspire me, but I'm not so great at following through. One day, though! :-)

katielovesdano said...

My family would love this!! We just had a new baby (and a long recovery!), and are all just getting over the flu- so our recent family nights have consisted of cuddling on the couch watching movies. Needless to say, my 4 and 2 year old are itching to get outdoors! :)

Thanks for the giveaway!
katielovesdano@gmail.com

Cassia said...

We haven't done as many as we should lately since a 600 mile move. We used to do board games or a movie. I guess on Sunday nights we still have family nigth in front of the t.v., picnic style and watch a show and eat together

Stacy
shortkids5@gmail.com

*carrie* said...

Nathan would love that!

We've just been enjoying (finally!) being outside. The other night we biked over to some friends' who have horses and fed them veggies, then went to a park.

Tara said...

Hi Monica,
We went to the Ymca for family night and swam together in the pool. We then finished it off with a movie. Thank tou for the encouragement!

Anonymous said...

Hi Monica,
We went to the Ymca for family night and swam together in the pool. We then finished it off with a movie. Thank tou for the encouragement!

Becky said...

Neat!
We spend our time in our backyard- either playing tag, swinging, digging in the dirt, etc.

It's a time where the kids get our undivided attention outside- so important!

bbgdsmith@gmail.com

Christy said...

My boys love to fly rockets so we have been doing that alot. We also love picnics. Just being outside spending time together is wonderful!! That soccor goal is awesome! My little guys would love that!

Blessings!
Christy
christymcox@comcast.net

Ami said...

Last night was absolutely beautiful and we went to the local Arboretum to go for a walk. We also had a family morning the week before and we went hiking and picnicing at a new place. This is the time to go hiking during family time!

We got subscription to Netflix this winter and we've been enjoying great movies with the kids - like Pollyanna, Old Yeller, and lesser known ones like Follow Me Boys.

The Clines said...

Our family nights are usually spent watching a movie or sporting event on TV. Soemtimes we play a board game.
teresacline2001(at)yahoo(dot)com

Sheila said...

There was actually a movie the whole family could enjoy available on Redbox, so we rented the movie, I made homemade pizza, and we sat in front of the TV and ate our pizza. After pizza, I made homemade chocolate sauce and we have sundaes. We do not normally eat in front of the TV - always at the table/bar area, so for us to eat in the living room and laugh together at a movie was something different and a treat.

Anonymous said...

Recently, we had a lovely walk into town to the small city park there. Had a fruit and nut picnic, played frisbee(ok we tried!!),later we watched Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. Great day. Also made a new kinda of pizza. Ranch ,bacon chicken, way yummy!!! We would enjoy the soccer playin!! tammyp teapitts at bellsouth dot net. Thanks Monica!!

Stephanie said...

My kids would love this!! Our typical family night is Friday night pizza and a movie and we rotate who gets to pick the movie. We don't change it up very rarely because with homeschooling I am usually needing the downtime by Friday night, but it's become our tradition and we all look forward to it. : )

Heather said...

What a great giveaway! We have 2 small soccer players in our house and a 3 year old who loves to chase her sisters around with a soccer ball. They would love a net to shoot on! This winter I started planning almost weekly family fun nights. We had so much snow, so we did a lot of game nights and movie nights. Our favorite was UP family movie night. I made "upcakes" that looked like balloons and attached thenm with colorful ribbon to a 3-D version of Carl's house. It was a huge hit! Warmly,
Heather
blessedandbusy@aol.com

Missy K said...

Oh, my goodness! My boys would love that. We've been playing lots of games outside lately for family evenings, taking advantage of these wonderful long pleasant twilights.

angie said...

I have big sports fans in my family. On Saturday night, we had a carpet picnic for dinner and watched our first Phillies game of the season.
My son plays soccer, so I know he and my daughter would have fun with this goal.
angiechadwell@yahoo.com

Wendi said...

I haven't been good at having planned family nights lately. We have just been spending lots of time together outside. I do have a notebook full of ideas and plan to start working through them this week.

MrsCoach said...

Every night is family night around here (well, it seems that way since we are always with our children!!) But we do designate one night a week to making a meal together (usually pizza or lasagna... something the kids can join in making) and having a "picnic" on the floor (or outside, since our weather has been unseasonably warm), or at the park, and a movie together or games. Our family favorite game is Pictureka!!

Blissful & Domestic said...

We love Family Nights. Every Sunday after church our family gets together and we have a potluck dinner and then we have a spiritual lesson with a game or something. These times have really made our family grow closer together and the kids love Sundays even more now because of the time we get to relax and spend with each other.

Paps4u@aol.com

Funtastic5 said...

Monica,
I have been following your blog for about a year an a half now. It has really strengthened my faith. thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and biblical wisdom. It has really been a blessing to me.
We just started family nights and I hope to be a bit more organized in the future. We ended up visiting a park we had never been to , walking a trail through the woods, then we watched a movie and ate popcorn together.
My son just started soccer last week so this would be perfect for the kids!
Thanks!,
Danielle

Agnes said...

that sounds like a fun game. We do family night every saturday. It changes all the times, game boards, game that I make, picnic, lacross, croquet, anything that gets us moving and have fun. I love your ideas Monica, I used your idea of a play for easter and we all loved it!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Monica:
We try to do something each Friday night that involves the whole family - game night is especially fun. One particular favorite for the kids is playing Candy Land. The winner gets a piece of candy of their choice. We play 3-4 times back to back so everyone gets candy. We have also munched on "mice" food like cheese and crackers while playing Mouse Trap, my son's favorite game. Nothing huge, but the kids love it.

kellymcdaniel@charter.net

Melissa said...

Our family really enjoys going fishing when the weather cooperates. When we stay indoors we usually end up watching a movie and eating popcorn.

Thanks!
Melissa

isayamen@yahoo.com

Nessie said...

I adore family nights. It is so special to have all your loved ones around. And with spring being in the air, it's extra special. Everyone is looking forward to BBQs in the back garden...

Marla said...

Our last family night included making homemade pizza, watching a movie and munching pop corn. The weather has been wonderful here lately so, our next family night will probably be a picnic at the park! :)

Aya said...

Our most recent family night included a lot of fun and silly animal charades!

lynxpaw49 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Lindsey said...

We just started doing Family Fun Nights with our almost 3 year old twins! We love being outside now that the weather has gotten warmer -- playing at the playground, throwing the ball around with Daddy and eating picnics on blankets in the grass :)

LBrittin@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

For our family nights we will either have movie and popcorn or play on the Wii. But now that the weather is great we will be getting outside more.

Thanks
Monica K
mkitchens@newfield.com

Carrie said...

WOW! THat's an awesome gift! I'd love to be included in this giveaway, for sure!

We just had a family "Spring Time" party last week. We went to the local party store and the boys each got to pick out a helium balloon which, of course, rocked their socks off. THen we made special party food and played games. It was fun and my son, age 3 1/2, got to work through the steps of planning a part.

#1 - Invite guests (we sent an ecard to Dadddy)
#2 - Pick decorations (can't have a party without baloons!)
#3 - Plan food.

=D Fun stuff!

Linda said...

Oops! I forgot to leave my contact info! lovemylittlefamily at yahoo dot com

Linda said...

One of our favorite family activities is canoeing on the lake. We love to pack picnic lunches and walk/bike around the lake close to our house.
For me personally I also get a great sense of family/togetherness when we garden together. Growing up my family spent lots of time in the garden. I love to share the joy of growing things with my little ones.

The Gaertegang Homestead said...

Yahoo...my three boys woudl LOVE this! They are totally into soccer.

For this past Friday night we went to see a Bluegrass show! We drove about an hour..the show was 2 hours..a lovely older couple took us out for ice cream that we barely knew....WHAT A TREAT!!!..then an hour home with 4 sleeping kiddos!

Sooo fun..good memories made!

Thanks for the giveaway!

Anonymous said...

We haven't done much in regards to family night- or at least I don't make them official. But, I know that's something I need to start making a habit for us.

The soccer goal would be great for doing something this summer. Isabelle loves playing with a soccer ball and she'd have fun if all three of us played together!

amybee said...

We have family night on Friday evenings. We eat pizza and watch a movie together. We have been enjoying the Life series on Discovery and the movie Ponyo.

MamaBirdEmma said...

We've been enjoying the beautiful weather by going on long walks, to the playground, or just sitting outside and blowing bubbles! What a great giveaway!

Wendy said...

I'd like to be more creative about this as well. What we've been doing is watching old TV series on DVDs like "The Waltons", "The Andy Griffith Show", "Little House on the Prairie". We usually share a big bowl of popcorn too.

Thanks for the giveaway,
Wendy
wpwp2000@juno.com

Mrs. Pear said...

We are moving next week, and once we are settled I have plans of being more deliberate in our family night planning! This past year we have just been happy to get through each week, but now things are changing and I am hoping to get on top of things again!

My girls would LOVE this...although no promises they don't also use it for a hockey net....

(Oh, and the reason I am not packing boxes right now is that the company hired movers! PRaise the Lord)

Anonymous said...

Hi Monica,

We love family nights. We do movie nights and homemade pizza nights. We also do picnics at the beach for sunset. We have great sunsets here in SW Florida. Game night with popcorn and cookies is also a popular family night. I love reading everyones ideas, thanks for sharing. :)

Blessings,
Yvette
yvette@im4christ.org

Angel said...

My children would absolutely love this!
We don't really do a "family night" but are purposeful about being together as a family and finding fun activities to do together daily!

Christy said...

My husband has been introducing my older kids to some classic movies that we enjoy to watch. Now they are old enough to follow them and understand the dialogue. It's cool to see them enjoy the same historical genre movies we like.

Christy
neemee1974 at yahoo dot com

Davonne said...

I'd love to win this! My husband used to play soccer, and we're often playing kickball or something in the summer for family night. We've even played soccer without a goal, but that gets tricky :)

Lately, we've been getting into geocaching for family nights - it's like a real life treasure hunt and SO MUCH fun!! The entire family loves it, and we can take a picnic basket and eat at a pretty location, or even just grab sandwiches before we go. There are over a million active caches around the world, and each person chooses one small treasure to take out, and puts in a new one of their own! There's a ton of great info about this at http://geocaching.com/

Thanks for the opportunity :)

My e-mail is DavonneMarie @ HighPCS . com (remove spaces).

Bessers said...

That looks like fun! Our family fun afternoons lately have mostly involved going to parks together. When the weather was bad, we would play together at home. Our last one was a 13 mile bike ride with lots of stops for the kids to play in the steams and explore nature. You can contact me by leaving a comment on my blog if I win. Thanks!

Jill said...

We recently purchased an outdoor grill, with that and the wonderful spring weather here in the south we too have been spending more time outside. Playing soccer with the family sounds like fun.

Thanks,
dineshjill@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Our last family night was on Easter as well. We made resurrection rolls, told the Easter story and watched an Easter movie. We don't do a lot of themes, just fit in activities here and there.

Sleepingkt@aol.com

Lisa said...

Family nights... although we really don't have a designated family night, we do enjoy taking walks, playing games and going to the park together when we can.

Thanks for the give away!
Lisa
totaleclipse22@yahoo.com

Shannon said...

We don't really do a "family night" except that we are together most evenings and very intentional about being together when we're all home. Although my kids do ask for movie night all the time :) And with summer approaching most of our time spent together is outside and we'd love to play soccer in our backyard with a net;)

Unknown said...

Most of our family nights aren't really planned...We usually do free kids movie monday at a local rental store and we have soccer practices 3 nights a week with games Saturday afternoon. So anytime we are all home we try to make it special however we can.

Huskerbabe said...

My little guys would love this. Around here almost every night is family night. We try not to schedule too much into our evening, preferring the sanctuary of home. :)

Darla said...

For family night we do things like watch old tv classics, go for bike rides, or make and eat ice cream. Good simple fun!
dar.sieb at gmail.com

May said...

Oh, how neat!
We are not as great about having family nights as we want to be. That said, our family time usually consists of playing games or watching a video with popcorn. Saturday we had scooter races and washed the car together...Okay so we did more playing in the water than washing, but who really cares if the car has pollen on it?

Anonymous said...

I would love to win this!

Veronica said...

We don't have a theme or an actual "Family Night"--but, we are always thinking of ways to enjoy our time together. Last night, we actually did something a little old fashioned. Everyone was cranky and just out-of-sorts (parents included!)so...we all piled in the car and went for an evening drive. It was so refreshing and nice to just let our minds wander and hear the happiness from our children's voices as they pointed out lights, signs, buildings and more. You would've thought we were in a brand new town they'd never seen before :)

There is just something so nice about that Sunday drive.

Anonymous said...

Hi Monica, Our family consists of 2 happy parents and 2 funny littles! We have a tradition that we all watch America's Funniest Home Videos on Sunday nights together. Last we watched, giggled and ate popcorn together while snuggled under blankets in rainy Seattle, Washington! We'd love to win the goal, it would be a great addition to our new home that we moved into 3 weeks ago.

Much love, April Mallery
aprilmallery@comcast.net

Nystral Djo said...

lately, we've been enjoying walking down to the local ballfields and letting the kids get their first real look at middle school baseball in action =) SO CUTE. nystraldjo at hotmail dot com (the kids would LOVE the soccer goal, btw)

snippity1 said...

Family nights are kiind of rare for us. With baseball, softball, car club stuf, college classes, it gets pretty hairy in the evenings. We do try to squeeze in a movie every now and then. Board games are always fun, and neighborhood walks. Soccer is fun too!

Sweston said...

Love it!! Suprisingly that is what most of our family nights consist of soccer games and now t-ball games!
s_b_weston@yahoo.com

Unknown said...

Hi Monica-
Love the blog!! Family nights are a little crazy around here. But we tend to do a lot during the day on the weekends. Hiking, swimming at the Y, free movies and the zoo. Thanks for having this giveaway. Check out my friend Danielle's blog at http://yelliepooh.blogspot.com/ she is having some awesome giveaways too.
God Bless,
Shelley
shelley(dot)haskell(at)yahoo(dot)com

Annie said...

We tend to do family movie nights or family game nights. Now that the kids are getting a bit older (4 and 6) we are spending more and more time outside playing! We'd have a lot of fun with the soccer goal!!

Blessings,
Annie
http://greyhairedmomma.blogspot.com
abcmgrey@yahoo.com

Jeremy said...

We've been spending family night enjoying the beautiful spring weather outside by going to the park, feeding the ducks, playing on the swings hanging from the tree, etc. My kids would love a soccer goal to go with all the balls they have!

Katie S.
jeremyandkatie529(at)gmail(dot)com

JStacie said...

My kids (especially my boy) would like this! We ususally do a movie. Some times we eat picnic style in the living room. Thanks for the giveaway!

Anna said...

We have three energetic boys, and one of their favorite family night activities is when we get out an air mattress and blow it up for them to jump on! :)

Anna said...

I didn't leave my email because I have it visible on my blogger profile, but just in case ... it's lucasandanna @ gmail.com. :)

DQ said...

Family nights we go firefly hunting! and ice cream eating

Jenelle said...

We've been doing a variety of things lately - park nights, movie nights, acting out our own drama, and anything possible to run energy off of 2 young boys.

Jenelle
jmjsneezy at gmail dot com

Paige said...

We have not had family nights in a while. Usually we watch a movie or in the spring, we spend time outside playing games with the children.

ncw2w@yahoo.com

kate tolson said...

We love to go on walks in the neighborhood almost every night. Our girls would love that soccer goal! Even if I don't win, that might be a good thing to get for them anyway. Thanks!
lisawtolson@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

We love family nights. My kids love to plat board games but this would be a nice change.

crystal
crystal_824@yahoo.com

Heather said...

We've been playing outside a lot also. Going on walks, playing at the park and watching the kids ride their bikes.

hmckay84@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

The kids ride their bikes or swing and some nights we get the riding mowers out and just ride around the yard on them-sounds a little goofy but it's a fun way to be together outside! Also, if the weather isn't too cool or it isn't too windy, we eat our supper on the patio.
Amy (jaacgifford@yahoo.com)

Amy said...

Oh no, here's my e-mail

Amy Doherty
adoherty@austin.rr.com

(family bike ride gal!) :)

Amy said...

My 5 year old just learned to ride his bike without training wheels so we take almost nightly bike rides! It's lots of fun and I know I will miss these when he gets older!!

deirde said...

ours usually revolve around food my hubby is a chef and i am just a foodie....we made funnel cakes the other day, we cooked out on the grill and had a burger contest we make giant ice cream Sundays...

Julie said...

Most of our family nights have been Movie Nights, but now that spring has finally arrived, we've spent a lot more time playing outside. This soccer goal would be awesome for my budding soccer player and his soccer referee dad.
julieadp at gmail

Jenny said...

This sounds looks like so much fun! Our only family nights are pizza and movie nights.

Melissa said...

Monica - This family LOVES to play soccer! We hope to have fun family nights kicking the ball into this FABULOUS goal.

Jeni said...

What a neat idea, soccer stuff! we often have family nights with outdoor stuff, bubbles/chalk or go to the school park and often we play board games! thanks!

wurmMJ@aol.com

brentandsarah said...

I hope its not too late, I am central time! Enter me if there is still time!
sarahn06@live.com

Amanda said...

Hello. =] There are really three things that we do together as a family on a fairly regular basis, although we don't have a specified night. We work on house projects (we just finished remodeling a den into a room), play Phase 10, and watch movies. A great family movie is "Secrets of the Mountain," by the way. (If anyone's interested, more info here: http://www.walmart.com/ip/14005826)

If you'd enter me into the contest that'd be great. =]
ihappydance@ gmail dott com