Family Time

As part of my goals for 2012, I wanted to make sure that our family spends time together.  Not just time together on the couch watching TV or the boys together playing video games.  We assigned each family member a month.  On their month, they are expected to choose an activity for our family to do together.  It doesn't have to be an expensive event - it could be a picnic at the park, but something that we all do together.

January

January was Cameron's month.  He decided that he wanted us to go bowling.  So we did.  We did a Pizza and Pins deal at our local bowling alley.  The deal gave us two games of bowling and a large pizza and pitcher of soda.  We did find out, though, that with our family, one game of bowling is enough.  I wish that I had gotten pictures, but alas, I did not.  

February

February was Ally's month.  She decided that she wanted to do an event where we could all volunteer together.  This was not as easy to find as I would have liked.  Many volunteer events require participants to be adults.  The Soup Kitchen doesn't allow kids, and neither do many of the other organizations.  But I finally did fine one.  Habitat for Humanity works year round to provide affordable housing for families that need them.  During the winter months, they work in a warehouse space to build perimeter walls of houses that will be used in later building projects when the weather permits.  The children could not physically do the building because of their ages, but one of the needs that they have with these projects is for Lunch Crew.  The organization reaches out to the community to provide lunch for the work crews on these projects.  So we signed up to be Lunch Crew.  My family pitched in too to help since we were providing food for approximately 30 people.  We went to the work site, set up the food, fed the workers and then cleaned up. It was cool for the kids to see the teams working on the housing project and explaining to them what they were doing.  

March

In March, we did a family event that was not chosen by one of our family members.  For Christmas, my mom and dad decided to take everyone on a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN.  We spent a week there in a house with my parents, my sisters, and my brother and his friend.  We spent some time in the mountains, playing games, and we even went to Dollywood.  Cameron even rode his first roller coaster!  It was lots of fun!

                                       

 

April

April was Jake's month.  He already knew what he wanted to do for his event in February!  Allison's birthday party was in April and she had her party at a roller skating rink in Hagerstown.  Jacob loved it!  And the funny part was that I really think that he spent more time on the floor then he actually did on his skates.  But he had so much fun.  He knew for sure, even in February, that he wanted to go back to the roller skating rink for his month's activity.  So we went to Starland Skating Rink in Hagerstown for Jake's family activity.  We planned this event for a Friday to correspond with picking up the Vince's kids for their weekend with us.  After work, Vince, Jake and I drove to Smithsburg to pick up Cameron and Allison.  After we got them we drove to a local park and ate pizza for dinner at one of the pavilions.  After dinner, we headed to the skating rink for some roller skating fun.  It turned out to be not all fun....unfortunately.  Jake fell down about a million times, and then Jake and Vince (who also can't skate very well) collided and both fell on the floor.  Vince fell right on his elbow was in a good deal of pain for the remainder of the evening.  Jake had a good time, though, and he thoroughly enjoyed roller skating.  I can't say that I think ti will be another family activity in the near future, but we did it none the less :-).  

So....what's next?  Guess you'll have to wait and see! :-)