Family Newsletter!

I am super excited to do this one with my daughter and husband. It's kind of like sending out Christmas letters, but could include a lot more. You could essentially use any program from Word, to Open Office, or an actual Newsletter construction program.

Here are a few suggestions (I have not tried them personally, so use discretion when you choose one)

Word (Click this link for instructions)
Publisher (LINK)
Word Draw (LINK)
Smile Templates (LINK)

And now here's the hard part. You may be like me and want to share your news with family and friends all the time, in newsletter form, because somehow, it makes you feel important. Well I'm going to put the kabash on that idea right away! Who has time to write newsletters constantly? May I suggest that you stick to Easter  and Christmas? Or perhaps for each person's birthday? (This is an EXCELLENT way to start a family history book, btw). The choice is yours, but from personal experience, I would say to be careful not to take on too much. It's easier to start small, and do more newsletters later than to attempt a lot all at once. And now for the second hardest thing. Choosing what to include....

Choosing what to include will have a large bias depending on how many people you have in your family. If you and your husband have 5 kids, you might want to forgo drawings by the kids, whereas if you have one child, you will likely have space to include it. The choice is yours, but here are some ideas.

Recent pictures (any snapshot is fine)
Upcoming dates of importance (Dance Recitals, Graduation, Birthday Party, etc)
Current Address and Phone number (especially important if you recently moved like we did)
Family News (Graduations, births, etc)
Special successes (Aced a test, job promotion, etc)
New house (Or apartment, condo, garden, etc)
Family History/Genealogy story
Stories written by the kids
Pictures drawn by the kids
Family Vacation Summary (with pictures)
Favorites (Family Recipe, Game, Book, Activity, etc. You could also do this for birthday newsletters)

The options are limitless. And if you feel overwhelmed, just think what you would tell someone that you hadn't seen in years, and you were catching up over lunch. Start with that, and build from there.

Good luck with everything! Don't worry about it being perfect, especially in the beginning. My daughter's birthday is coming up, so I'm going to make a newsletter for her to send to family and close friends. What kind of newsletter would you try?

Activity: Indoor Bowling

Here's a great activity if your family drinks a lot of soda from either 2 liter bottles, or regular cans. And it's probably one of the simplest activities you will ever do.

All you need is a soft ball (a ball that is soft, not a soft ball like a baseball), and EMPTY soda bottles or cans.


Now set up the cans/bottles to be like bowling pins, and voila! You are ready to start bowling! I find that the best place to do it is in a long hallway, since the walls kind of act like "bumpers" for bumper bowling. This helps the smaller kids do better and enjoy it more when playing with big kids. Here's a few ideas if you want to "jazz" up the "pins". And of course the kids would have lots of fun doing this too, and it would make the activity longer! Who doesn't love that?

Perfect for Halloween!

What a great way to keep patriotism in your home even when it's cold outside!

In case you don't know, these are supposed to be Minions from Despicable Me, and Despicable Me 2.

Snowmen, just in time for Christmas!

Another twist you can do is to use a small pumpkin instead of a ball. It makes the game a lot more difficult since the pumpkin doesn't roll straight at all.

Have you done this before? how did it go? Did you take any pictures?

Helping: Helping in the Kitchen

I love to cook, bake, decorate, create, and anything else you can think of in the kitchen (except for cleaning up. I don't think that I will ever enjoy that). Happily, we noticed early on that Mia was always wanting to know what was going on in the kitchen. Quickly, it became too much to hold her and try to prepare food, especially when trying to cut up vegetables or raw meat. So this past Christmas, we thought that we would get her her own little pretend food, pots and pans, and a little chef outfit. Oh, and a shopping cart to carry it all. Now when we cook, she can "cook" with us, but not be in our arms. Of course, this concept only worked for a few weeks, and we had to think of something else.

I thought that maybe if she could see what we were doing while sitting in a chair, then perhaps that would help. I was on the right track, except for the fact that I was using a sharp knife and Mia has small and curious fingers. But then I realized that I still had cilantro leaves that needed to be pulled off the stems. I gave some of the leaves with stems to Mia, and then showed her how to pull off the leaves. This was perfect! She understood it right away and had lots of fun. She was engaged in her task, and I was able to do everything else I needed without worrying about where her fingers were.

Now of course when you do this with your own children, you will need to decide what they can do based on age and skill. For example, I wouldn't give Mia a knife since she's not even two years old yet. But I can give her tasks like pulling grapes off the stems, tearing lettuce leaves for a salad, or adding pepperoni to the pizza. Mia is also learning to put plates and forks on the table. Have you tried something like this with your own children? How old are they and what task did you give them?

Wednesday is Library Day!

It's no surprise to those that know me that I love to read. And happily, I have transfered much of that love to my daughter, Mia. As this is the case, we are usually at the library for one or both of us at least once a week, particularly on Wednesdays.

In our area, the libraries has baby story time, Toddler time, and Pre-school time, where the teachers uses songs, actions, and books to teach concepts. It's a lot of fun and the kids get to wiggle while the parents/guardians participate or talk amongst themselves. Sadly, story time stopped between Thankgiving and Christmas, but it will be starting up again next week. And since I knew in advance that the library would be closed here and there around the holidays, I decided to check out a lot of books in advance, so that we would'nt be scrambling for things to read.

Since it was Christmas time, we got books about Hanakkah, Santa, Jesus, and other holiday topics. My favorite books turned out to be the ones where a song was put to pictures in book form. Like "Away In A Manger". I ended up singing through the book slowly, and Mia couldn't get enough. She even started singing with me. :)

What are your favorite library or book memories? Do you and your family have any favorite holiday books?