November 5, 2016

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Becoming Wise About Dinnertime

Just before we eat dinner each night, it’s routine for me to call out to the kids, “Please set the table.  Seven plates.  Seven glasses.  Seven napkins. Seven forks and knives!”

We are a blended family of seven.  I was a divorced mother of three young kids when I met Jay.  He has two young children of his own.  Before we met, we were both struggling to raise kids independently.  Dinner was an after-thought in our busy lives.  To me, it was about getting whatever was quickest on the table.  I often didn’t even sit down with the kids while they ate.  After all, they had a tv to keep them company.

Today I have a whole different perspective on dinner for my family.  I guess meeting Jay and taking responsibility for all seven of us caused me to reconsider my approach.  I needed to put some planning into this.  I needed to think about schedules.  I needed to consider a budget. 

So we made it work and we now have dinner together each night.  Admittedly, dinner is sometimes very late, (or very early), depending on sport schedules and school activities.  But I can’t tell you enough how much this simple routine has brought us close to each other.  We pray together before we eat.  We share stories and jokes.  We learn things about each other we probably wouldn’t know if it weren’t for making dinner together a priority.

I wish I had this wisdom earlier in life, but I’m so grateful that I have it now.  We take pride in setting our table for seven each night and finding the time for this very important event we call “dinner”.

 

November 1, 2016

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Halloween for Kids

It’s Halloween and it is also the 9th birthday of our youngest son, Luke.  He loves this holiday and right or wrong, I have raised his expectations each year to host one big, spooky, fun party.

This year, his 3rd grade classmates are coming as well as the neighbors on our street.  We are expecting about 30 kids.  (And some adults).  So what to do?

To take the pressure off of hosting a sole event, I like to host a pre-trick-or-treating party.  That means i entertain for a limited time and once it gets dark, the kids are guaranteed fun going house-to-house.

This year I planned four activities areas and lots of creative food for the kids.  Let’s start with a cookie decorating table of skeleton heads for the kids.  I know the creative ones will really enjoy the challenge of using different colored frostings and toppings like sprinkles, chocolate chips and candy corn.  I made sure to decorate the table with great inspirational sculptures and spooky template designs.

Station #2 was a tic tac toe game made right on the floor with duck tape and small orange and white pumpkins.  Luke and his friend, Hunter, made the sign posted above the game station.  It read “Tick, Tack, Tow”.  (We practiced our spelling the next day.)

applesNext was a spider piñata.  To make it fun, we blindfolded and spun each child around in a circle.  A few hit the spider, but not even the 12 year olds could break it open.  We resorted to a quick look, no spinning and a blind shot.  Finally, someone broke it open and kids scrambled for the candy as if it weren’t Halloween trick-or-treating in just another hour.

For the fourth event, we hung donuts from a tree branch and asked each contestant to put their hands behind their backs and use only their mouths.  The first one to get the donut to drop was the winner.  A simple game but harder than you would think!

Treats for the party included caramel apples punctured with tree twigs, monster cookies, chocolate covered pretzel witch fingers, candy corn bark, eyeball cupcakes and brain punch.