We’re off to take a family vacation in Michigan! We’ll be around Little Girl Point in the Upper Peninsula, beach combing for agates and exploring the Porcupine Mountains.
I should be back around Friday. In the meantime, here are ten of my all time favorite ways to make the day magical….
1. Give the kids a box of dress-up clothes — old Halloween costumes, old fashioned hats, capes, ball gowns and such and take them out to the back yard or someplace picturesque to take a fun photo shoot.
2. Find someplace busy and blow bubbles on a windy day. One of my favorite memories is blowing bubbles with the kids during rush hour from a park towards a busy street. We had bubbles going everywhere and there were so many grins and smiles from once-weary motorists.
3. Take the kids out to the back yard or a field or park after dark and toss something glow in the dark in the moonlight. The darker the night and the higher the tosses, the better!
4. Tell the kids that they can’t use their hands for dessert tonight. Take pictures!
5. Wait till it rains and go dance in it, then stomp in puddles until you’re all soaked.
6. Do a random act of silliness together. Brainstorm about ways to make friends and family go "huh?". Mail a really bizarre gift (anonymously) to a friend. Leave little post it notes that say things like "woodchuck" or "look out behind you!". Print out a Shakespearean sonnet and hide it in the corn flakes. Be creative and have fun!
7. Watch movies with the kids of when they were little or snuggle up on the couch and look through old photo albums. Tell stories and be sappy.
8. Mail your kids greeting cards just because, and tell them how crazy much you love them — and why.
9. Have random theme days. On purple day, everybody wears purple and you make purple food. On letter B day you do things that start with the letter B (bowling, bubble blowing, barking…) and eat things that start with the letter B. Have Pirate Day, Backwards Day (wear your clothes backwards, eat supper for breakfast, read a book from the back to the front…), you name it!
10. Get out the good china and make dinner a fancy affair. Light candles, put on special music, etc. and tell the kids that there’s no better "company" than them. Practice your fancy manners together and serve foods with extra fancy flourishes (pipe the mashed potatoes with a pastry tube, use garnishes, etc.).
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And with that, my fabulous mama friends, I am off for the wilds of Michigan!
Please talk amongst yourselves! 🙂 See you Friday!
~Alicia