Ready for Autumn? The air is crisp in the mornings and at night, the summer’s bounty is about to be harvested, and it is a time to enjoy the season with your children and family. Here’s to a celebration of the traditional season of fall. If your child is having a party in September or October, this is an excellent theme.

This is a great party to do either at your home or at an outside venue, such as a local farm. So, take a look around and see if there are any local farms in your area that allow for parties. If you hold your party at such a location, the hayride and picking of apples and pumpkins will be great activities.

Invitations:
Cut out leaf shapes or autumn harvest shapes and place them on card stock and include all of the information on the inside of your card.

Decorations:
Orange, brown, and yellow are great colors for this theme. Purchase party and table ware in these colors. Alternatively, you can use leaf patterns.
Use mini pumpkins for your table centerpiece.
Tall cornhusks and bales of hay would add another decorative touch to the party.

Crafts: 

Paint/Decorate mini-pumpkins and have the kids can take these home. 

Make Scarecrow Candy Necklaces. Using straw, have the kids string round candies with holes in the center to make their necklaces.
Sponge paint placemats with leaf shapes.

Games/Activities: 

Bob for apples. 

Have a Pumpkin Roll Contest. Divide the kids into two teams and provide a pumpkin to each team. Have the kids roll it to one end and back and pass it along to the next person. 

Throw a Hula Hoop around a large pumpkin.
If you have bales of hay, have the kids jump over the bales of hay as an obstacle relay race.
String up donuts and tie the kids’ arms behind their backs. Have them eat the donuts off of the line without using their hands.
Hold a scavenger hunt outdoors. If at night, hand out glow sticks for the kids to search for the loot.
Fill a large cardboard box with leaves and place toys in the leaves. Have the kids put their hands inside the box and pick out a toy.
Play Hot Pumpkin, like Hot Potato. 


Menu:
BBQ is always good for this type of a party; spice it up with spare ribs. 

Chili is also an excellent option. Have all of the fixn’s so that people can enjoy topping it off. 

Serve corn bread muffins.
Make Rice Krispie Treats and add orange food coloring to them. Stick them on a Popsicle stick for a treat.
Serve Apple Cider. As an added treat, place caramels on fancy sticks and have the kids stir it into their apple cider for Hot Caramelized Apple Cider.
Make caramel apples.
Make sugar cookies cut out into autumn shapes. Have the kids decorate the cookies with frosting and candies.
Make a batch of cupcakes and ice them with orange frosting and little black, orange, and white sprinkles. The kids can always do the decorating.

Goody Bags:
Purchase little plastic pumpkins, which are so popular as trick or treat bags this time of year. Fill it with all things “fall” – caramel apple cider packets with a cinnamon stick, little themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, pumpkin candy, and candy corn packets.

Summer is winding down quicker than you may realize. Many children have already gone back to school and soon the dog days of summer will be coming to an end. Why not take advantage of these last few warm weekends? This weekend, get the family together and create a campground in the backyard.

Obviously, this family night activity requires a bit of planning. You’ll need to grab some camping foods, such as hot dogs and marshmallows for roasting. You’ll also need a tent and sleeping bags . If you don’t have any, chances are your friends have some you can borrow for the weekend. Last, but not least, you’ll need a bundle of wood to create a roaring fire and don’t forget a cooler for the drinks and food.

Next, you’ll need to think of some activities. Scary stories around the campfire are always a fun idea. Each person can make up their own story and tell their story before bedtime. Another activity that is fun for little kids is to take a hike around the backyard. Take time to look at things like you’ve never looked at them before. For example, look at the different plants and wildlife. You could even take pictures. A fun idea for older kids is to create a bit of competition through sports or even a campfire cook-off.

There are several advantages to camping out in your own backyard. First of all, there’s easy access to clean bathrooms, which is always a plus. Second, you don’t have to spend a dime on gas to get to your destination. Last, but not least, if your city doesn’t allow fires in the city limits, you can cook everything on a grill. This truly is a family night activity that brings the family together, but doesn’t require a lot of money. It’s a great way to say goodbye to summer. Don’t worry though because there will of course be many more family night activities for the cool months of fall.

Do you have little kids in the house? Little ones are always amazed by plants and how they grow. Why not take advantage of this and save some money in the process? Over the course of a few weeks, start a family garden club. Not only will this give you and your family time to bond, but it can also provide food and beautiful landscaping for your household. This week, gather your family around and get dirty with a garden club.

This activity will actually take more than one week. In fact, it’s an ongoing project your family can share together. During the first couple weeks, discuss what types of plants you would like to have. Have everyone in the family write down at least 2 types of produce and two types of landscaping plants.

The next week, sit down and draw the area outside your home and make close ups of certain areas. For example, draw an overhead of your property and then draw a close up of the flower beds in front of your home. This helps the family determine how much space is available and what space could be used for different types of plants. Remember to take into account what type of light each area gets.

On the third week, you can start deciding which plants would look best and what types of produce will grow best in your area. To help make your landscaping decisions easier, print out pictures of the plants you want to use in each area.

It’s finally time to start buying the plants and start gardening. Most families will have to work on their property in sections. Not only is it expensive to landscape your entire yard at once, but plants need to be planted soon after they are purchased. Don’t take on more than you can handle each week.

This is a great way to spend time together and teach your young children at the same time. Not to mention your family can benefit from the beauty of the plants and the nutrition of the produce. Even if you don’t have a large space, your family can still work with indoor plants and a window garden.

Kids bored? Need something the whole family will enjoy doing that you haven’t already done a million times? Try river rafting in Colorado and Utah. The kids will be having so much fun, there won’t be time to get bored or disagree. There are many family river rafting tours that are geared toward the entire family. So grab your crew, grab your gear, and head to the mountains and rivers of Colorado or Utah.

If your crew is into camping, many family river rafting adventures including camping, hiking, fishing and more for an all-out outdoor adventure. Spend your days and nights in the wilderness, with plenty of time for bonding, laughing, and reflecting. The river rafting experience adds more excitement and adventure to a fun family camping and outdoor experience.

If you’re looking for more of a day trip, there are plenty of family river rafting excursions that allow for that as well. Family river rafting in Utah or Colorado can be done in an inflatable kayak, an oarboat, or even paddleboats. There are several ways to enjoy river rafting with the family. For the safest family trip, guided tours are recommended.Guides will be experienced in the area as well as on safety.

Many of the guided river rafting tours will include the watercraft and flotation devices for the whole family. Always check to be sure you are aware of what’s included. Flotation devices are a must for anyone participating in a watercraft activity, even superb swimmers. Be sure that everyone knows the proper safety procedures. Guided tours generally include safety instruction, but it’s wise to also do safety research beforehand.

Check with the desired venue ahead of time for recommended clothing and supplies. Boat shoes are a must for everyone. A good pair will help prevent slipping and will have a waterproof design for comfort. Other family river rafting supplies might include swimwear, compasses, a nautical watch, lightweight food that requires little to no preparation, plenty of water, appropriate clothing for the weather, and more. Check with the tour coordinators for suggestions appropriate to your exact type of river rafting experience.

Sources:
http://www.griffithexp.com/family-river-rafting.htm
http://www.fourcornersrafting.com/colorado_family_river_rafting.shtml

It’s that time of year when you begin to plan your Fourth of July celebration, and you want to include the kids in the fun too, of course! Check below for easy, budget-friendly ways to make the Fourth of July full of family fun!

Decorations:

• Instead of filling vases with flowers, fill them with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. This is yummy and festive looking. Guests can scoop the berries out and add whipped cream for a truly red, white, and blue treat!
• Use different-shaped vases to hold dips and chips as well. These make great centerpieces as well as unique serving dishes.
• Mix and match red, white, and blue solid paper ware. Cloth napkins in the same colors would also add an elegant touch.
• Roll butcher paper out onto your party table. Scatter red, white, and blue crayons across the table for the kids to color with while eating.
• Fill balloons with red, white, and blue crinkled paper. Have the kids pop the balloons for festive explosions of color.
• Using pop-cork place mats and attach the kids’ names to the pop corks for easy seating arrangements. The kids can take their pop cork home along with their tags, so use red, white, and blue colors to make them festive.
• Sprinkle red, white, and blue confetti and candies around the table.

Activities:

• Have the kids make small US flags and place them into red, white, and blue sand pails that have sand filler at the bottom! Turn this decoration into a game. Divide the kids into two teams and have them run, grab a flag, and quickly walk back to the team line, where the next person must do the same. The team that has all of the flags in hand most quickly wins! Let the kids take the flags home as a goody!
• The kids can make a sidewalk chalk mural. Have red, white, and blue sidewalk chalk on hand to give to the kids and let them create their own patriotic mural. They can create an American flag, fireworks, the Washington Monument, etc. This is a great activity for a dry Fourth of July Day!
• Boil a dozen eggs and color some red and blue (be sure to keep some white)! Have an Egg Spoon Relay Race. Divide the kids into two teams, and provide each team with a spoon and eggs. The kids must balance a colored egg on their spoon and walk quickly from one end of the yard to the other and return. If the egg drops, the team member must begin again. The first team with all members completing the relay race wins!
• For older kids, water balloons will be loads of fun. A fun twist on traditional water balloon games is to create a small hole in each balloon, and then fill it with water. Let the kids toss the leaking balloon, which will become a bit of a time bomb as you don’t want to be the last one holding it when it finally runs out of water! Quick, easy, and fun!
• Play classic relay races and picnic games, such as ring toss, sack race, and three-legged race.
• Have the girls add red, white, and blue star beads to their shoelaces for added fun.
• The kids can make their own creative rockets with cardboard tubes, tin foil, craft paper, tissue paper, glue, markers, ribbon, and child-friendly scissors.

Tasty Treats:

• Have a red, white, and blue taste test with the kids. Put out all sorts of foods and spices in a series of small dishes . Blindfold the kids and have the kids taste the foods and spices and guess what they are. Ideas for tasting include salt, ketchup, blueberries, strawberries, French salad dressing, mayonnaise, sponge cake, strawberry jam, pepper jack cheese, beets, tomatoes, garlic, bananas, cherries, etc.
• Freeze blueberries and raspberries in ice cube trays to make star spangled cubes.
• Make a rocket pop drink. Fill a glass with ice cubes. Carefully pour cranberry juice, blue Gatorade, and 7-Up into the glass directly over the ice cubes to maintain the patriotic colors.
• Using blackberries, cut up/halved strawberries, and bananas, have the kids create a fruit flag using the fruit pieces. They can place this on a cookie tray, and then you can lay it out to serve to the rest of the guests. The kids can also make mini flags for themselves. You can also provide lollipop sticks to the kids to skewer the fruits with.
• Using a star cookie cutter, make up a batch of patriotic gelatin stars, star sugar cookies, cheese slices, and sandwiches filled with cream cheese and blackberry jam.
• Make a batch of cupcakes and have the kids frost them and decorate them with red, white, and blue sprinkles.

So much fun for so little money and time. Happy Fourth of July planning!

The idea of arts and crafts can have varying effects on families. Thoughts of glitter all over worry moms and dads start thinking about how they’ll get the paint off of the wallpaper and older children scoff at the idea of painting and crayoning. Contrary to first impressions, arts and crafts have the potential to appeal to the entire family and to bring you closer together as a family unit in the process.

Pick a room, any room.
Start your family arts and crafts adventure by picking a room that could use some sprucing up. Ideal choices include a child’s bedroom, a nursery for a new addition to the family, or a playroom. If none of those seem to work for your family, consider a blank wall in the unfinished basement. Your arts and crafts adventure can become a focal point for a finished basement one day.

Start brainstorming.
Sit down with your family and start thinking about ideas for your blank canvas. Think about ideas to match the sheets and window dressings, or something completely out of the blue. Individual pieces, drawn by each member of the family and framed with black paint, are one idea. A whole mural with pieces contributed by everyone is another. Whatever you decide, get wild with your arts and crafts project for the entire family! The bigger, the better!

Start with outlines and sketches.
Start your art project with sketches and outlines. Draw on writing paper, trace the images you want to re-create or make bigger and get feedback from the rest of your family members. This project is ideal for younger children to seek help from their older siblings.

Get painting.
Once the sketches are done and the outlines drawn, it’s time to get painting. Whatever type of arts and crafts project you’ve decided to incorporate into the room’s décor, now’s the time to implement it. Worry less about perfection and more about the experience!

A whole family arts and crafts projects, such as decorating a room with artwork by each member of your family or an entire mural, has the potential to bring your family together and make memories in the process. Start small, dream big and create lifelong memories. That’s what family is all about.

Remember sitting down with the family for a night of board games? Whatever happened to this simple form of entertainment? There was once a time when you could spend $20 on a board game and enjoy years of entertainment. While classic board games may bore many of today’s families, it’s important to remember that board games aren’t what they used to be. In this week’s blog, we’ll discuss how families can bring back family night with exciting board games.

Classic Monopoly and Life used to be quite entertaining, and still entertain younger children. Unfortunately, these games have lost their luster for older children. That doesn’t mean that family game night has to be a big bust. The market is loaded with classic board games that have been given a makeover. Not to mention all the new games that are truly interactive, such as Scene It.

That’s not all though. For families who have gaming consoles, board games can even be enjoyed on the TV. Games, such as Monopoly and Battleship, are available at affordable prices. Most of today’s current consoles allow for at least 4 players, giving families the chance to enjoy video games together.

If you’re worried about price, don’t be. Not only do these games offer hours of entertainment, you can often find them used at yard sales. A great way to enjoy video games is to subscribe to a game rental site. For around $25 a month, your family can have two games out at a time. This is a wonderful way to try games before investing in them.

To round out the night, why not bake up a few pizzas and prepare ice cream sundaes? When you enjoy family night at home, you can afford to do more. This week, why not have a little fun with the family and purchase a new board game? You’ll experience hours of enjoyment for an affordable price.

What family doesn’t enjoy a night at the movies? Unfortunately, the economy has made it harder for families to enjoy this activity. A simple night out at the movies for a family of four, plus drinks and snacks, can cost close to $75. In a rough economy, most families simply can’t afford this type of entertainment every week. Thankfully, there are ways to enjoy movie night at home. This week, let’s bring back family night by enjoying a few movies. There will even be money left over for drinks and snacks.

First, let’s discuss the movies. There are several options that will help families save money. Pay Per View movies cost around $5. Movie rentals from a local video store are slightly less. But, the biggest savings comes from online rental services. These services can save families a ton of money. For example, most companies offer 3 movies out at a time for around $25. That’s 12 movies a month. Just think how much 12 movies would cost at the theater! Best of all, family movie night can be enjoyed all evening long. Everyone can choose a movie they love.

Now what about snacks? Movie theaters make most of their money by charging outrageous prices on simple things like popcorn and soda. For example, a large bucket of popcorn costs around $7 and a large soda costs around $5. You can recreate the entire movie experience for less than $20!

2 liters of pop $6
4 boxes of movie theater candy $4
1 box of microwave movie theater popcorn $6

As you can see, it’s much more affordable to enjoy movie night at home. You could even afford to make nachos and hot dogs if you wanted. And, once you discover how much money you can save, you may want to invest in a movie theater style popcorn machine.

Movies don’t have to be reserved for the theater to be good. In fact, movies are even better at home. So why not gather the family together this evening and enjoy a few movies? This is truly an activity you can afford every week.