10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy Monday!

Sorry for my long absence.  This has been a busy bunch of months for us, with lots of doctor visits and tests for me, along with lots of fun and activities for our whole family.

Here are a few ways to make some memories this week….

1.  Drape some blankets over a clothesline, tree, tent poles or other props in the back yard and make some impromptu forts.  Stock the insides with some fun books, games, snacks, a flashlight, whatever, and see what fun the kids dream up to have in their new fun space.

2.  Waste a box of birthday candles on repeated wishes.  You join in too!

3.  Make up a batch of homemade playdough (white) and then hide different colors inside.  Poke a hole in the middle and add a little bit of food coloring (we like the paste food coloring sold for cake decorating because it’s so intense and comes in lots of colors).  Encourage kids to knead their balls of playdough and watch as they discover there’s more to it than it first appeared!  You can also do color mixing this way (make yellow and add blue to the center of one and red to another, for instance).

4.  Write something random and silly halfway down the toilet paper roll and then roll it back up again.

5.  Get together with friends and take wacky photos around town.

6.  Make a vision board for the new school year together.  Gather up a bunch of old magazines, sheets of posterboard and scissors and glue.  Have your children cut out words and pictures that represent things they want for the new year, then glue them onto the board.  Encourage them to be optimistic and to dream big!

7.  Make fizzy cupcakes.  Bake and frost cupcakes and then sprinkle them with Pop Rocks.  We usually avoid junky stuff like that but every once in a while it’s pretty fun to have really crazy treats.

8.  Challenge the kids to make each other laugh as much as possible.  Try for all out belly laughs, snorts and the type of giggles where you can’t catch your breath.  If you can, catch it on tape to make you all laugh all over again later.

9.  Go on a joking spree!  Write out corny jokes on small pieces of paper and leave them for folks to find– on counters, in bathroom stalls, you name it.

10. Throw a dinner party just for your family.  Put out the good china and some delicious appetizers, set the table grandly and dress the part.  Put on some music, light some candles and take your time enjoying your own company together.

And with that, I’m off to tend to an injured boy, snuggle with a small girl, hang out with some bigger kids, figure out lunch, work on a family video message for a certain teenager and clean like crazy.  Or at least a bit of that…  We’ll see how it goes!

Have a magical week!