Family Life

 

Honestly, I'm not so great at remembering to do a weekly family night. We have a set night of Monday every week where we plan to get the kids together, turn off the TV and have some quality family time. Sometimes that means watching a movie or game, sometimes a "lesson" or a discussion on how to improve, and sometimes it's just a trip to get some ice cream cones together. With the kids being so young we actually spend a lot of time with them in the evening already, so I admit it usually slips my mind. Because of this though, when I do plan a family night, I go all out! This last family night was no exception. I felt like a pretty awesome mom :)

It all started with this great idea on service I found HERE! I really liked the "spy" theme and thought it fit in perfect with "secret service". My son claims that he will join the CIA when he's an adult (something that makes me a little nervous, to tell you the truth) so I knew he would love it.

In addition to the cute printable on secretly serving others, I added a pair of "spy" glasses (cheap sun glasses from the dollar store) and some "explosives" (pop rocks candy). We talked about why it's important to serve others and to serve others secretly, without a thought of reward. I set up a couple games for them as well. Black construction paper foot prints guided them through a red yarn "laser beam" maze and pop the black balloon "bombs" to find the secret coded messages (scriptures on serving others). Afterwards we sat around the living room and laughed together about the funny pop rocks tickling our noses as they popped.

Overall a pretty successful family night, if I do say so myself. I've come across a few more family night ideas that look pretty fun for the future...

"Tangled" Family Home Evening by Blue Skies Ahead with free printable

Popcorn Parable with free printable

Banana Splits For Dinner Party with free printable and inspiring message