FAMILY BINGO NIGHT

BINGO

I know it sounds old fashion but if you theme it:

Easter egg for Easter

Chocolate for Christmas

Water toys for summer

everyone gets into the spirit.

GREAT FOR USE ON YOUR INVITE

You can use a bingo game 

or

download this bingo number generator

so there's no cheating LOL

If you google "bingo printables" you can print off bingo cards

(numbered or pictured for younger children)

Give prizes for:

four corners

a line

and

BINGO!!!

to keep everyone interested.

PLACE SETTINGS

BIRTHDAY CAKE AND CUPCAKES

FROM THE CUPCAKE BLOG

and these are doughnut balls dipped in white chocolate

Have fun with your family!!!

THANKSGIVING FAMILY TRADITION

This is a lovely Thanksgiving tradition that can be added to year after year.

This could be adapted for Christmas, Weddings, Birthdays or any special occasion really.

Family and friends write what they are thankful for or a short message or just their names, and babies hands are drawn around in a sectioned off part of a tablecloth which is dated. 

Then all pen marks are embroidered as a permanent keepsake

as featured on Christy Robbins

PAPER AEROPLANES

Liam has a friend coming over on Saturday, 

and if the bad weather keeps up we will need some indoor activities so they don't think they can play on the Wii or DS all day.

So we are going to construct, draw a design on them and fly them 

(who's goes the farthest wins)

Family Fun

We have the Klutz paper plane book

but you can find templates and instructions

here

and here

and some fab colour printables on dad can do

And here

Have fun with your Family!!!

TOOTH FAIRY FAMILY TRADITION shhh don't let the kids see this post!!!

When Liam looses a tooth and places it under his pillow at bedtime.

As you know the tooth fairy comes along and takes it away and leaves a coin in it's place.

The tooth fairy is a messy little thing and leaves fairy dust (glitter type dust!) all the way from the door or window she happened to come in from to all the way under his pillow. 

When he was younger he had great fun following the fairy dust trail round the house.

Messy little fairy, I wish the clean up fairy would visit the next day mind!!!

Let me know what you think!!!

SANTA CHRISTMAS TRADITION but shh don't let the kids see this post!!!

This is one of our Christmas family tradtions.

I'm alittle soppy really, but like I said I like to make the most of every occasion.

So on Christmas Eve after the presents have arrived, the milk and cookies have been eaten and reindeer's fed. Santa leaves a torn piece of red fur fabric from his suit on a nail inside the open fire place where he comes down the chimney.

I will go through our photo's to see if any show this.

In the old house where there was not a fire place he snagged his clothes on the catch on the door.

Clumsy Santa.

Shhh!!!

Do you like this idea???

LETS PUT ON A PANTO FAMILY NIGHT

This is a fabulous fully animated website for your kids to put on their own pantomime, for Christmas.

Put On A Panto

You can chose from the following:

Peter Pan

Cinderella

Aladdin

Snow White

FAMILY PRESENT SWAP NIGHT

Last year we had a dedicated Christmas present swap night....

.....instead of the last minute run around to deliver everyone's presents

and no time to enjoy each others company.

We arranged a December Sunday afternoon, way back in May, 

so everyone could mark it in their dairies and keep free. 

And then everyone could make sure the presents were bought for then also.

Then everyone came to ours laden with presents and they also bought a HOMEMADE family favourite dessert. I supplied egg nog and drinks, cream and hot custard to go with the deserts.

We sat and enjoyed each others company for the afternoon and there was no pressure on anyone (except me to get the decorations up early!!!) to cook, wash up everyone helped themselves.

CHOCOLATE GAMES FAMILY NIGHT

We've been pretty busy lately, so I thought we would have some fun family time this weekend.

Being as Liam enjoyed the chocolate games whilst camping, (and to breath abit of new life into the board games stuffed in the cupboard). I am going to try it at home.

Mmmm yum yum, but what to choose....

 MALTESERS SOLITAIRE

MALTESERS KER PLUNK

CHOCOLATE BUTTONS DRAUGHTS

M&M LUDO

CHOCOLATE CHESS

You can buy ready made chocolate sets or buy a mould and make them yourself.

CARD GAMES WITH CHOCOLATE COINS FOR BETTING CHIPS

I have stuck these free printable poker chips on the chocolate coins
 (you can use elizabeth shaw chocolate mints if you can't find chocolate coins)

JELLY BEAN MANCALA (I know it's not chocolate but still fun)

JENGA

I wonder if we could play chocolate Jenga with kit kats???

We will give it ago, and let you know.

I think we may feel alittle ill on Saturday night. LOL

Our favourite chocolate party games....

CHOCOLATE DICES

You will need:

A large bar of chocolate

A plate

A knife and fork

A hat, scarf and gloves

Two dice

How to play:

Put the bar of chocolate on the plate with the knives and forks nearby and sit the children around it in a circle. Put the hat scarf and gloves in the middle.

Children take it in turns to roll the dice on the floor in front of them, passing them around the circle to their left. If a child rolls a double, they leap into the center of the circle, put on the dressing up clothes, and start to unwrap, then eat, the bar of chocolate - but only using the knife and fork. That child keeps going until another child rolls a double, at which point they mu co-operate in handing over the dressing up clothes so that the next child gets a turn.

We even play it at Halloween with scary hands and mask.

Hints:

This game can get very rowdy as doubles sometimes come thick and fast! Be prepared the change the rules if nobody is getting a chance to eat any chocolate, perhaps using only double 3, double 4, and double 5.

If you have a particularly large group of children, you might be better off having two sets of dice going round the circle (starting opposite each other) at the same time. If you do, you might want to limit "winning" doubles to double 5 and double 6.

Have a spare bar of chocolate or two on hand.

LACE RACES

You need:

strawberry liquorice laces

large marshmallows

You need to make a hole in the marshmallows and thread them onto a lace.

Alittle fiddly but don't try to be careful and the marshmallows stretch well.

One child holds an end of the lace in their mouth so the lace is tight (not saggy)

Make sure the marshmallow is in the middle and explain the lace has to stay tight

then on GO they have to eat their way (no hands!!) to the marshmallow

the one who eats the marshmallow first wins.

It is so funny, especially if it's a boy and girl a=on each end and they are 8. LOL

FLOUR FACES

Best played outside, as very messy!

You need:

2 large trays

2 small buckets

2 bags of flour

plastic knife

*several homemade large chocolate circles

Place trays on table and make flour sandcastles

place the chocolate circles on top

Get the child to carefully cut away a slice from the side of the sandcastle

If the castle falls the child has to pick the chocolate circle up with their mouth only (hands behind their back)

Chocolate Circles

Are just melted chocolate into small cookie size shapes.

Make sure you have lots.

I added dolly mixtures, M&M's and other sweeties whilst the chocolate was melted.

I must have made them too nice and they ended up knocking it over on purpose. LOL

If you have any other SWEET / CHOCOLATE  games, send them to me and I will include them.

Have fun with your family!!!

SALT DOUGH CHRISTMAS

And here are Cobble Stone Farms Christmas salt dough ornies.

How cute are these and these...........

Don't forget to check out my other salt dough pages
just click on salt dough in the list at the side!!!

 

Roll on Christmas!!!

SALT DOUGH HALLOWEEN

Yet again Cobble Stone Farm come up trumps with

her Halloween salt dough ornies.

Off to have ago, will post pics soon.

Have fun with your family!!!

STORY SACKS

I thought  as it is Children's Book Week (4th-10th Oct)I would share another one of our favourite pastimes from when Liam was younger.

STORY SACKS

A story sack is a cloth bag containing a favourite children's book

with associated games and activities in the bag.

Look here to get the best use out of your story sack

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/3210/Story_sack_guide.pdf

Sorry but you will have to cut and past, as the link wont work.

We made our first one based on one of our favourites when Liam was little:

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR.

First we got a sack, a pump bag will be fine.

Decorated this with a felt picture of the hungry caterpillar.

We read through the book and found the main characters and highlights and features of the book.

(The time is here to get your thinking caps on and find / make toys, games, and activities that you can use to use when reading the story and for activities to do after reading the book.)

We made bunting,

 I photocopied the butterfly from the book onto card

stuck this to the end of a length bright red ribbon

on the other end of the ribbon,  the caterpillar (a straight picture of the caterpillar)

Then I printed a picture of everything the caterpillar ate
I made hole in each one that was big enough for Liam to feed the caterpillar through each piece of food.

Also two small copies each of a caterpillar, butterfly and everything he ate, and played matching pairs.

I found some printable colouring pages from here                  .

Also I found the life cycle of the caterpillar printable book here.

There are also some lovely ideas on this website

And we had a caterpillar cuddly toy, which came with Liam's book.

He loved reading the book then playing with the things in the story sack.

Have fun with your family!!!



HALLOWEEN BOOING / GHOSTING

Here's a fab way to kick start the Halloween season of alittle early.

We had great fun sneaking round to family and friends homes, to spring our sweet surprise on them.

And their response was fantasic, trying to guess who had Boo-ed them.




Right you need send two sets of prints out (we send about five to get things going)
you send a poem flyer (which explains what they need to do next)
 and a poster for them to put up in their window, so people know they have been boo-ed
With a small Halloween neat or sweet treat for the child.

This is last years.

Actually looking at the photo it looks like we sent more like ten not five. LOL

I just get carried away in all the excitement.

Which was really easy for Liam to do.

But this year I want a go myself,

so I am going to try out these fab designs from

Tom Kat Studio

But if you need a simple design you can just photo copy try this one from
Sara Stars



Both are free to download for personal use.

Then after you have delivered these see how may pop up around the nieghbourhood!


Have fun with your family!!!



FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT

We are going have a movie night with a couple of Liam's friends.
We sent out invites....

Right click on images, save to your computer and print.

I found these fab invites on triciarennea.blogspot.com

or for you family try these from family fun


You will need to copies of this.

and also these printable pop corn boxes on nataliejost.com also available in red, which I used.

Set up a pic and mix station with bowls and sundae of sweeties.

(put the sweets into clear plastic cups)

I  served drinks in paper cups with lids and straws.
Pop corn and drinks were serve on a white wooden tray with ribbon attached and hung around my neck
like in the old days. LOL but i didn't get a photo of it, next time tho'.

Close the curtains, turn off all the lights and torches to lead the way to the sofa.

Sit back and enjoy the movie!

Have an intermission, then small tubs of ice cream.

~*~*~*~*~*~Also check out our SIMPSONS MOVIE NIGHT here~*~*~*~*~*~

Have fun with your family!!!

DUCK TOURS (NOT THE QUACK QUACK DUCKS!)

What a fun way to see the sights.

Your kids will love it, we did!

We went on the one in London, you get to see the sites on road and then it drives right into the river Thames.

It is alittle unnerving but my son loved it.

Now it's not the most informative tour and was rather rushed but we would do it again!

On land (as you can see by Liam's face he loved it).......

and on water!

 

SORRY CAN'T SEEM TO UPLOAD ANY PHOTO'S AGAIN AT THE MOMENT!


"It's fun, it’s quirky and it’s different!"

London

"A Duck Tour is a totally unique way to see the sights. You are rewarded not only with a live guided road tour of the City of Westminster, passing landmarks such as Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, but you are also treated to an unforgettable trip on the river, without ever leaving the comfort of your seat! All this on an historic vehicle used for the D-day landings in 1944."

There are also duck tours in:

Liverpool

Lake Windermere

Devon

Have a great family fun day out!!!

NEW YEARS DAY PARADE / LONDON

2011 is London's New Year Day Parade's 25th Anniversay!

January 1st 2011. 12pm to 3pm.

The New Year's Parade is a free event which has taken place in London each New Year's Day since 1987. More than 10,000 performers take part: it takes about 2 hours 30 minutes for the full parade to pass by. There are marching bands and cheerleaders: many of these travel from the US to take part.
There are also historic vehicles, animals, clowns and giant balloons.



Look here to find out more.

Have a fun family day out!!!

APPLE DAY / 21st OCTOBER

You could find somewhere local that are having an event.

 Here's a list of some Apple Day Events around the country

OR

For the price of a bag of apples you and you family can have a few hours of fun.



Who can peel an apple with the longest peel competition.

Shrunken Heads are fun and great for Halloween to.

Bake an apple pie.

Make some apple cider.

Make an apple print bag.
or a pump bag

I think this paper bag apple is so cute.

You could also make some apple from fabric scraps.
I will find you a pattern.

And of course there is bobbin apples.




Have some fun with your family!!!

.

KITE MAKING / FLYING

KITE MAKING / FLYING

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"With tuppence for paper and strings

You can have your own set of wings

With your feet on the ground

You're a bird in a flight

With your fist holding tight

To the string of your kite

Oh, oh, oh!

Let's go fly a kite

                              Up to the highest height!

                                Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring

                                    Up through the atmosphere

                                     Up where the air is clear

                                     Oh, let's go fly a kite!

                                  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sorry I couldn't resist it was going round my head. LOL

We have decided our kite of at least six years "nessie" is far to easy now. She is a single line kite with a whopping 6m tail, and really easy to fly.

So we are going to make a sled kite from one of the two kite books I found in the charity shop (I have had these for years just waiting to have a go)








Like I have said, we are using instructions from a book, but this sites instructions are very similar.
But I am planning on using the heavy duty clear plastic sheeting from the local DIY store, and drawing our designs on the plastic sheeting with permanent marker pens.




I will post some pics after the weekend.
I do hope it's windy this weekend. LOL

There are afew kite festivals listed on here you could go to.
(check out the events list page)
There are kite days at some National Trust properties too.





Have fun with your family!!!

CONKER SEASON IS HERE (SEPT/OCT)

Well it's here guys CONKER SEASON,

so get outside in your local parks and find your winner.

A conker is the seed of the horse chestnut tree.

When you find your first one call out

"Oddly oddly onker my first conker".

This ensures good fortune and few tangles throughout the coming season.

 Prepare your conker for playing.

The best conkers to play with are uncracked and  firm. 

Make a hole through the middle of of your chosen conker.

Thread a strong piece of string about 25cm long, through the hole and tie a knot at one end.

How to play conkers.

Players take turns at hitting their opponent's conker.

If you are the one whose conker is to be hit first, wrap the string around your hand and let the conker hang down.

The conker is held at the height your opponent chooses and is held perfectly still.

Your opponent, the striker, wraps his conker string round his hand just like yours.

He then takes his conker in the other hand and draws it back for the strike. Releasing the conker he swings it down by the string held in the other hand and tries to hit your conker with his.

If a player misses hitting his/her opponents conker they are allowed up to two further goes.

If the strings tangle, the first player to call "strings" gets an extra shot.

If a player hits his/her opponents conker in such a way that it completes a whole circle after being hit - known as ‘round the world’ – the player gets another go.

If a player drops his conker, or it is knocked out of his hand the other player can shout 'stamps' and jump on it, but should its owner first cry 'no stamps' then the conker, hopefully, remains intact.

(You may want to omit this rule LOL)

The game goes on in turns until one or other of the two conkers is completely destroyed.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The National championships are held on the second Sunday in October every year, in Oundle, Northamptonshire.
As you can see from these photo's they take it very seriously. LOL


Conker wreath (threaded onto a wire ring)


Have fun with your family.

PICK YOUR OWN PUMPKINS

Well October is here and Halloween is coming, so why not find a local pick your own pumpkin farm.

You can look here at the pick your own farms but check they grow pumpkins

or google PICK YOU OWN PUMPKIN " AND YOUR AREA"

Some farms have activities going on to, so you can make it a great fun family day out.

Remember not to go to early as they wont keep but don't leave it until the last minute either.
Also think about what you are carving onto the pumpkin so you know what size and shape you need.




Have fun with you family!!!

OCTOBER IS " THE BIG DRAW " MONTH

"So why not get everyone at home drawing.
It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, how about a game of pictionary or some sidewalk (chalk) art.
You could even buy some wallpaper lining and stick it to the lower part of your wall and let the kids create their own mural.
Or there's always the portraits sitting you could do your own or each others, see what your children really think you look like. Be warned these are not always favourable, but good fun

Checkout THE BIG DRAW WEBSITE for ideas.

Also check your local area as there are many things organised over the country, that you can join in.

My son was convinced he couldn't draw, then I bought him this book and he realised his pictures didn't have

to be perfect. Quinton Blake is a good example of this.

Also there are a good range of Klutz learn to draw books.

Have fun with your family!!!