Family Home Evening- Activities

I'm continuing this week's Family Home Evening theme with activities. This is the part that my kids always want to get to. The really fun part! Their are so many activities you can do with your family. I think the important thing is that you are doing something together with all of your family. We've done all kinds of things for our activity, but here are some of them; play outside, make a craft, decorate cookies, board & card games, take treats to neighbors and friends, and yard work. One of our favorites is the Don't Eat Pete game that I have pictured in this post. The one above we received as a Christmas gift from friends. It's very nice, cute and laminated, so it will hold up well. It also has the directions printed on the back.


To play Don't Eat Pete, you use a small food item like Cheerios, M&M's, raisins, etc. and place one piece on each person. You pick one person to be "it" and then have that person go out of the room or hide their eyes while the rest of the group picks a person on the board to be Pete. Let "it" start to eat the food one piece at a time, when he goes to eat the piece that is on Pete everyone yells "Don't Eat Pete!" It is a cute game that my whole family likes to play!

We first played this game when my son was 2. A friend down the street made a game board(the one pictured at the bottom of the post) and gave them out at church and that's when we first played it. My son was "it" and finally got to Pete after eating almost every little Cheerio on the board. My husband and I said "Don't Eat Pete" and it scared him so bad! Poor little guy. He cried so bad and we ended the game. Luckily, their was no long term "Don't Eat Pete" trauma. He's 10 now and he gets excited when we play it. That game is just one of our favorites. Another one is "Hide The Thimble." Pretty simple. Just get yourself a thimble, send one person out of the room while another person hides the thimble, and then let the person come back in to find the thimble. A fun one!! I will also link you to a past post of the Candy Bar Game, which is another fun one! Enjoy those activities and have fun with your family!

Candy Bar Game-- Sweet Fun!

Last night for Family Home Evening it was Trent's turn to pick an activity for us to do together and he chose the fun and fast paced candy bar game. This is a game that my husband used to play with his family. He introduced it to me a little while after we were married and I thought it was a lot of fun too! We can all play it together now that our kids are bigger and more coordinated(at least 2 of them are).

To play the candy bar game you need a large candy bar(we used a Symphony bar-Yum), hat, scarf,2 oven mitts, fork, knife and a die, which I didn't include in the picture. We played at the table so Ivy's(our 2 yr. old) little hands wouldn't get into the candy bar while we tried to play, but I think it works well to play on the floor and just put a towel or something under the candy bar to keep the floor clean. To play, the first person rolls the die once trying to get a 6. If you don't roll a 6 pass it to the next person and they roll. If you do get a 6, you then put on all the gear;hat, scarf, oven mitts and then you have to open the candy bar with the knife and fork and attempt to cut a piece of the candy bar and eat it. If you do, you win! Oh but wait. Play doesn't stop. The die is still being rolled while you are trying to do your thing and if someone rolls a 6 you have to take it all off and pass the gear to that person even if you didn't get a chance to cut that candy bar. Hope that makes sense. It's a really fun family game and you all get to eat a big ole candy bar! However, it is difficult to take pictures and play the game at the same time. I know!



We let Ivy participate even though she's a little young for this. She rolled/threw the dice and got a 6! William helped her suit up. I don't think she quite knew what was going on. She was looking like,"Why is my daddy putting all this stuff on me?" She sure did like the candy bar, though!




Our winner! William was the first one to actually get a piece of the candy bar cut and eaten.The kids didn't mind that at all. They knew they could eat the candy bar now. Oh..um... nice hat honey... and that pink and black scarf is all the rage!

Sweet victory!

Pretty In Pink Diaper Shower

On Saturday, I hosted a diaper shower for a friend at my house. To get the word out, I made these invitations. My friend, Renee, also helped with the shower and found the cute poem online that I used for the invites. I kept them simple and sweet to go along with the diaper theme. I matted the the poem onto pink textured card stock and then stamped pretty in pink polka dots onto the white. A small pink felt diaper complete with tiny safety pin rounded out the invitation.


To make the felt diapers just cut out small triangles, fold in the corners(like a diaper) and pin. I think these turned out very cute, but were a bit time consuming.

The poem for the invite reads:
The changing table and diaper bag have something that they share,
When you reach inside of each-a diaper should be there!
Since Hanna and Michael are parents-to-be and will be doing a lot of "changes,"
Please join us as we shower them with diapers- in all the size ranges!

For the shower game we played Baby Memory. I love this little game. It's so cute! I actually think this game was played at my shower when I was pregnant with my son. That was 10 years ago....wow!

For this game, you are supposed to match different baby phrases and you get a prize if you get a match. The prize is a coordinating candy bar or candy. Be sure to explain that to your guests or they might not get this game. For example, if you match the phrases "Baby girl" your prize would be a Baby Ruth candy bar, "epidural" would be Lifesavers. I used 14 different phrases so I had 28 phrases all together on my board. I wrote them onto foam board and covered each up with a post it note with the numbers on them. Our guests thought this was fun and different. Come back tomorrow for some delicious recipes for the food we served.

You can get the list of phrases and candy I used for the game below!

baby girl- Baby Ruth
baby boy-Heath bar
epidural-Lifesavers
pacifier-Ring Pop
midnight feeding- Milky Way Midnight
lullabies-Symphony
triplets-3 Musketeers
twins-M&M's
conception-Skor
OBGYN-Mr. Goodbar
doctor bills-100 Grand
poopy diaper-Mounds
umbilical cord-Twizzlers
baby talk-Snickers

Game Time!

Yesterday, I shared my kids' love of board games with you.They're not the only ones who like to get their game on. So today it's mom and dad's turn! Will is definitely more into strategy games. Me, not so much. He is a certified computer geek,after all. Really, he is. He's a software developer, come on! And no, he doesn't mind if I refer to him as a geek. That's a term of endearment to him. He's proud of it and so am I. I love my geek!:) Anyway, back to the games. By far, his favorite of all time is Chess. It's not in the picture because I didn't know where the chess set was. Other faves include Risk, Fluxx and Munchkin. If you haven't heard of Fluxx, it's a card game where the rules constantly change. Pretty fun once you get going. Check it out.




Moving on to me. I am a party game kinda girl. Apples to Apples and Taboo are a couple of my faves, but I also enjoy games like Spoons, Scattergories and Outburst. Like I said before, I'm not so much into the strategy type, but I will play them. I'm just not very good at them. Probably the reason I don't care for them too much. It' just so fun to have everybody involved and interacting in the game, to me. These are a sure bet for a fun game night. I think it's time to call some friends and get the snacks ready!

Mom, Can We Play A Game?

Mom, can we play a game? It's a question I hear a lot at our house. The kids(and their parents) love a good game. We have game nights all the time. It's just so fun for us to sit down and spend time together this way. Mine and Will's family always played games and I'm glad our family does too.Usually, the amount of time we have determines the one we play. My kids like all sorts of games; Sorry, Clue, Apples to Apples, Zigity. I could go on and on. But I thought I'd share a few of their favorites. Check 'em out if you can. They're kid tested and approved!



Oh how we love Fancy Nancy! The girls, that is. Laci adores the books and the game now, too. She got the Fancy Nancy Big Easy game for Christmas from Nana and Grand dad and has been lovin' it! It has big, chunky pieces, a puzzle piece board and fun cling on stickers. So cute! You get to visit places from the books like The King's Crown, ice cream parlor and Nancy's bedroom to earn those little stickers. A Laci favorite. She can't wait for her b'day in May, when we celebrate Fancy Nancy style.



Fun, Star Wars trivia is.(Say that in your best Yoda voice) Yes! Star Wars Trivial Pursuit is Trent's favorite! Probably because he's so good at it.He won this game in about 30 mins. one day. Now, if you're not a SW's junkies like most of our family, then you might not like this one. I have to say it is fun to play with him. I think he's surprised when I get the questions right. He forgets I've only seen those movies like 100 times! Definitely a good choice for the SW fan in your house.



Gotta love Wig Out! A friend of mine introduced me to this game a few years ago. It's fast paced and fun! It won the Best Vacation Children's Product from Dr. Toy. We play this one over and over!( Our box is so tattered, I think it's time to store the cards in something else. ) Basically, it's just a deck of cards with silly looking faces on them and you make piles of matching cards. Everyone-at the same time. Well, my explanation of it is not the best, but the kids and I highly recommend it. Give it a try! Tomorrow, I'll share mine and my husband's faves. If you have some game recommendations, leave a comment to tell me about it. We're always looking for a good game.