Families, especially children, thrive on routine. Ever since my daughter was born, that is what we were constantly struggling to do: find some kind of routine. Bath routine, bedtime routine… then there is meal planning, work routine, endless laundry… etc. etc. etc.
I am however a person who THRIVES off of spontaneity. When friends tell me they are going on their first kid-free date in two years I am pretty sure my eyes physically pop out of my head. If we go more than a month without a date just the two of us I feel like I am losing my mind! I don’t like being cooped up, and sometimes this ‘routine’ does get to me.
On a day I was feeling especially bogged down by the ‘groundhog day’ feeling that routine gives me, I decided to come up with a list of simple things to do to add some fun to your plain-old evening at home.
Here is my brainstorm list. Please be sure to comment with your ideas you have to share too!!
Having a TV night on the couch? Pop popcorn and everyone snuggle up under a big blanket so it doesn’t feel like the same old mindless staring off into space.
For dinner, let the kids pick three random ingredients to make your meal out of, and do dinner “Chopped” style! Include one meat, vegetable, and grain.
Pick a theme and have a movie marathon! Star Wars and Harry Potter are our favorites.
Build a couch fort.
Have breakfast for dinner! French toast was always my favorite when we did this as a kid. This vanilla yogurt pancake recipe would be a win too!
Read books by candlelight. I know when I was little, anything was instantly more fun to me if doing it by candlelight.
If you have girls in the house, give each other main-pedis. My daughter is only two and she is so tickled when I paint her nails for her!
Load the family up in the car and hit the Dairy Queen drive-thru for some soft serve ice cream in your PJ’s!
Skip dinner at home and head to the local drive-in burger joint. Seattle folks, you know I’m talking about a $1.75 cheeseburger at Dick’s Drive In.
Turn up the music and have a dance party. When we were little, we would use spatulas as pretend microphones and dance around singing at the top of our lungs.
Go for a sunset walk.
Make a quick and easy dessert to treat everyone (diced strawberries or mango over vanilla bean ice cream?).
Pull out a board game on a Tuesday night. No need to wait for the weekend to have fun.
Start a tradition you have to look forward to (Takeout on Thursdays? Family bingo night on Friday?).
Bake cookies together.
Take the night off from cleaning and just chill. Talk about how awesome it is.
Go outside and play catch.
Hand make decorations for the next holiday coming up.
Face-time a friend or relative you the family doesn’t talk to enough.
Make your own pizza night! Make (or buy) pizza dough and a variety of toppings, and let each family member dress up a personal pizza just how they like!
Well… what do you think of my list friends? Does your family have any traditions that you would like to add?
Love this! So many good ideas! My daughter is 17months, so she’s a bit young to appreciate most of the things on this list but she’d love the forte idea! 👌 I can’t wait until she’s old enough to appreciate a Harry Potter marathon 😂
I think anytime is a good time to start them on Harry Potter! The first one is pretty mild 🙂
I feel the same way about having fee time. I need it way more than once every few months. I’d lose my mind. You have so many great suggestions here! Me and the kids do the traditions thing because it’s nice looking forward to something. We have Tuesday pizza night and movie night on Friday. They take turns choosing the movie and everyone has to deal with it. Thanks for all of the ideas. We need it!
Well I am glad I am not alone in that feeling. I had a co-worker tell me the other day they were going out for their first date night in 2 years and I was wondering how they had survived this long… I was judging my need to get out a little for a second, haha!
I love this 😍 though I kinda wish breakfast for dinner could happen every day 😂
I agree! It needs to happen more in my house for sure.
Let’s just make it a rule that breakfast must be eaten for dinner once a week 😂
That vanilla yogurt pancake has got to be tried out! 🙂
I am not a plain pancake kind of girl and just love them! They are very dense and flavorful, not like generic pancake house floppy ones.
I usually like them of a thick texture too with melted pockets of blueberries but this sounds promising 🙂
Great ideas!
Thank you!
What a list! I love it! We just had french toast for dinner tonight, in fact. 🙂 For our family, we get the kids in bed by 730, so with dinner at 6, cleanup, and then baths and bedtime there’s not more than 10 minutes of free playtime before bed. But in the future, so many of these ideas will be gold!!
PS that photo of your daughter in a high chair clutching her stuffed animal and sipping a straw … so precious!!!
This is a great list. I just blogged about this today. It’s great to find time to spend together. I love your “take out” idea. I could totally use a night of take out food! And…those pancakes! OMG they look amazing!!! Get in my belly!
The pink puppy in your pics caught my eye…my kids both have the same lovie. My son has one like this with blue spots and my daughter has the same exact one as your cutie 🙂
Oh my goodness, what a precious coincidence! I think my aunt gave it to my daughter the first time they met when she was about 9 months old and it was love at first sight apparently! I actually have 5 of them now that I keep on rotation as one needs to be cleaned or stitched up. It goes absolutely everywhere with her! Our nanny got her daughter the one with blue spots so they each could have one.
Yes we have a few of them too! God forbid one were to get lost! Ha we’ve had our original for almost 8 years!