Monte Cristo Day- Dinner Time Fun!

To start off, I had no idea what a Monte Cristo was, or even why we would have a day to celebrate it! But today, September 17, is the day to celebrate! Turns out, Monte Cristo Day makes for a great quick at home activity! Plus it is an activity that involves dinner! What is great about a dinner activity, you already have to have dinner, so turn it into a memory! Plus it gives your children a chance to try different foods!

The first step of this activity is to figure out what a Monte Cristo Sandwich is! All it is, is a Fried Ham, Turkey, and Swiss Cheese Sandwich! They are super easy to make, and they only take about ten minutes to prep, and five minutes to cook! Quick easy dinner! If you need a recipe,  Try this easy Monte Cristo Recipe! If you live close to a grocery store, try walking to the store with your kids! This will give them exercise and get them involved! Once at the store give each of your children one if the items to be responsible for! Maybe they hold the bread, or meat, or cheese. That way they won't be as worried about looking at the treats!

Now this doesn't really sound like an activity, but turn it into one! This is a great meal that is easy for children to help cook! Before dinner have the kids come to the kitchen. They can make their own sandwich and get it ready to be fried. Younger children this will be harder for, but you can help them. Give them what needs to go on the sandwich, then show them where to put it. Once they have their sandwich, while you fry them up, have a few things on the table for them to set up. Maybe it is the napkins, the silverware, getting water or drinks for the family! Then by the time they are finished, you have the sandwiches ready! This is great because it gives your children a chance to learn how to cook, how to set the table, and it gives you about a half hour activity together!

For older children follow it up and watch The Count of Monte Cristo, or get The Great Illustrated Classic Children's Book, Count of Monte Cristo, and start a new family read aloud! This can help your children become better readers, and it can get some of your children's homework done for the evening!

Remember you can make it a long activity or short one, just do what best fits the needs of your family!

National Play-Doh Day

Okay, so one of the best (and easiest) ways to plan activites is to celebrate national days! Pretty much everyday there is something bizarre to celebrate! Today is something a fantastic day!

HAPPY NATIONAL PLAY-DOH DAY!!!

Immediately, two inexpensive short activites jump into my mind! They aren't long but will create memories forever.

1. Play with Play-Doh
Okay, starting off this seems perfect for younger kids. You can make this as long of an activity as you want, or as short. Maybe it is a ten minute activity, but that is all it takes. The great thing about this activity, it can also be very inexpensive, or a little more depending on how much you want to spend.
If you are looking to do it inexpensiveky, head over to your local dollar store, or Walmart and you can pick up some play-doh. At my local dollar store I can pick up a pack of 3-4 different colors for a dollar. Not bad at all.


If you want to spend a little more on this activity there are fun Play-Doh sets. If you watch for deals you can get them anyway from around $5-$30 dollars! Right now on Amazon, they have some sets as add on items for only $4.99. I also know, last Satirday, my husband and I found a set where you make breakfast items for $9.99. Pair this with some of the specials and coupons for Toys 'R' Us and you can have an inexpensive fun night. Another great things about these sets, they usually come with one or two things of Play-Doh!


That is great for young children, but what if that doesn't really work for older children. This is where the adapting and changing comes in! Instead of just playing with Play-Doh for the older children, turn it into a game of Scultpionary. Each person will have a turn to sculpt something. The rest of the family or friends will then try and be the first one to guess what that person is scultping. Keep track of the points then at the end of the game, have an award (I usually do a printed out certificate)for the best sculptor, and the best guesses. You can also do silly awards like the most creative. The most artistically challenged (I would win that award.) Or even the best cheerleader! Whatever you decided to do, make sure it is positive for everyone!



If you have younger and older children, okay this game, but have an adult help the younger children. If you are up for t and have enough people, okay it in teams. Split up into teams, and have two people sculpting at the same time. Try and beat the other team by guessing what it is first. There are several variations you could do with this game!

Now, to the second idea that comes to mind!

2. Enjoy a Bowl of Play-Doh Ice Cream.

Once again this isn't a huge event, and doesn't take a lot of time, but how fun is it to eat Play-Doh Ice Cream in National Play-Doh Day. This could be a stay at home activity and have a carton of Play-Doh ice cream in the freezer to surprise your children with, or it could be s quick trip to your local Ice Cream Shoppe.


Neither if these ideas take a lot of time, but it is an easy was to start family Activites and spend time together!

10 Tips to Planning Activites

    Planning activities can be overwhelming and exhausting! Especially if you jump into planning huge extravagant events! Here are a few tips for starting out. 

1. Keep it simple. There is beauty in simplicity.
2. Adapt all activities to fit the different ages of your children. Almost all the activities you can think of can be a changed to be fun for older and younger children. 
3. An activity doesn't have to be long- memories come with 5 minutes or 5 hours.
4. Don't get down on yourself when an activity is a dud! We all do it- just make sure you remember, and never do that activity again! 
5. Laugh- Don't Stress- I it doesn't go exactly as planned. Things come up, plans change, and sometimes they make it even better than planned! Also, adventures can be exhausting for children! If your child is tired, and you haven't finished all you planned, that is okay. Finish it another time. It will be more enjoyable for you and your children. 
6. Don't be afraid to be cheesy- Yes, your teenagers will roll their eyes at you, but reality is they will remember the cheesy things for ever! 
7. Take pictures! They help keep memories!
8. Set a time. If you aren't use to doing activites tell your family to clear a certain time to ensure everyone will be there! Start by doing small Activites, then every so often pick one day to have a bigger activity.
9. Don't be upset if everyone can't make it. Enjoy the time you have with the family or friends that can be there! Putting pressure  to come will cause for a cranky environment, and it won't be a good experience.?
10. Last but not least, don't forget to enjoy the moment. So often we are so worried about planning, preparing, and getting it done, we forget to enjoy the ride. 

Those are just a few tips I have found help me and my family with activities! Start thinking of ideas and see what ideas you have! 

❤️ A Change of Heart ❤️

    Growing up I was famous for saying things like, "I can't believe you did this to me mom. Why would you have made me do this?" Or the famous last words, "When I am a parent I will never do that." I thought I was always right, and knew I could do it better than anyone. As I have grown up, and my life has changed, I have also had a change of heart! Here I am now 25 years old, married, with my 3 month old baby and my life has taken on a whole new meaning. My heart is full- full of love for my parents and siblings, full of love for my husband, full of love for my beautiful baby Lily, full of love for my little Roxy dog, and full of love for every person who has ever impacted my life for good or bad. This change of heart is also what makes me want to write. 

    As a little girl I loved spending time with my family. My mother always planned fun family activities for us. Some were extravagant events, and others were the perfect at home fun. I adored spending time with my family. Then I grew up (I hit those teenage years.) I no longer was excited about every little activity that was planned. I wanted my freedom. As the years went on, I moved to college, and little did I know I wanted to be back doing every activity my family was doing. The activities (the ones I didn't want to be apart of as a teen) now we're the things that made me want to be home with my family. Being a college student we know that you can't always return home whenever you want. Adult life had sunk in. I went home as often as I could, but I wasn't always able to. How grateful I was that my mom had helped me to love spending time with my family and that my family truly was (is) my best friends.  How lucky I am now to be living close to family to be able to keep doing exciting things with my family! I love the special bond I have with my sisters (I am from an all girl family) and their kids. 

    As my life has progressed forward, I have now become a mother (the absolute best experience of my life.) I find myself doing everything I said I would never do with my children! I can't believe this because my little angel is only 3 months old. I even put big bows in her hair (my number one complaint to my mother growing up.)  The other thing I found, I have such a desire to plan and do things as a family.  That is the first reason why I decided I wanted to start this blog. I realized how important spending quality family time is. It has impacted my entire life (I hope one day I can turn out like my mom.) I wanted nothing more than to start planning family activities for my husband, little girl, sometimes my dog, and me to do. I also wanted to plan activities that my little girl's grandparents could spend time with her. Those of you that know me, know I didn't have the best relationship with my grandparents, and one set of my grandparents I never had the chance to meet. For this purpose, I wanted to ensure my children have a chance to spend time and make memories with the people that have impacted my life the most.  

The second reason I decided to start blogging is because I have seen a change is dynamics since I was a child. Being a teacher I have seen a shift in families. I have seen a change from my students spending family time and doing family activities, to hardly ever seeing their family. I find this reality to be very sad, and becoming a dominant culture in my classroom. The other aspect of this, I find how children act and what they achieve in my classroom usually corresponds. Students that have a strong relationship with their family are more confident, more motivated, and come better prepared to learn. 

    The third reason I decided to start was because activities can be expensive. Now this can sometimes be hard. My husband and I have good jobs, and we have nice things, but that doesn't mean we have a lot of extra. So planning these activities can be a challenge. Although the harder I look, and the more I plan, I have found that there are so many enjoyable activities that have deals, are inexpensive, or are even free (we love free activities.) I wanted to have a place for people to go to help plan inexpensive activities that will create lasting memories with the people that mean the most to them. 

The last reason I wanted to start this was because too often our lives become so hectic and blurry, we forget to slow down and enjoy life. Now is the time to slow down, enjoy our families, we can only live each day once, so make the most of each day. Create a lasting memory each and every day!