This is a sponsored post. I was compensated for the post with my own copy of Who Wants to Be a Celestial Heir, but all opinions are 100% my own.
I’ve been listening to podcasts over the last year about families, parenting, moms, etc. One of the things I really liked was someone had mentioned that they had a dessert night on Fridays and as their kids got older, they started inviting their friends over to have some goodies as well. It brought the family together and also provided some good clean fun for their friends too.
I want to do something like this for my own family. So I decided to start a family fun night on Fridays where we would do a fun event with the kids. This could be at home or we go somewhere. We’ve been able to keep it up for a while and the kids always look forward to it and often ask it tonight is family fun night. 🙂
So I wanted to share some of the activities we’ve done to help you get started on some ideas of family activities you can do too. Especially in the winter when it isn’t as easy to get out.
1. Game night
We love games. And our kids are starting to get to the age where they can do some of the classic childhood games like Candy Land, Guess Who, Matching Games, etc. Hide and Seek is also a favorite. For those who are a little older, there are some great board games you can play as a family.
The newest board game we got is Who Wants to Be a Celestial Heir – Book of Mormon Edition. It’s a fun game where you answer trivia questions about the Book of Mormon in order to be the first to reach the Celestial Kingdom. It comes with TONS of trivia cards and allows you to use 3 life lines in order to work your way through the different sets of questions – similar to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It’s a fun game to see how much detail you can remember from the stories in the Book of Mormon. I love that it has slightly different rules for playing with younger children so it isn’t as difficult for them to make it to the top tier. I love that it’s 3-D as well – it adds a little something different to the traditional board game.
My husband and I played Who Wants to Be a Celestial Heir the other night and had fun answering the questions. He BARELY beat me in the end, but it’s definitely a fun game for us to play together and a game that we can have our kids play for family home evening or family fun night as they get older and start reading the Book of Mormon themselves.
This would also be a great Christmas gift idea!
2. Puzzles
We also love puzzles. Alan and I love to do Dowdle puzzles as a great stay home date night. The kids love to see them done so we leave them for them to see in the morning. The kids also love doing their own smaller puzzles.
3. Get ice cream
Ice cream is always a good idea – even in the winter. Just this weekend we went to see Christmas lights and then stopped at a popular ice cream place for a treat.
4. Make your own pizzas
Who doesn’t love pizza night, right? Using this easy homemade dough recipe, I rolled out individual pizzas for all of us and let each kid add their own toppings to their pizzas. They love this!
5. Movie night
This is one of my kids’ favorites. And if it’s getting late, we’ll just turn on a TV show, but we always pop some popcorn and in the winter we’ll make some hot chocolate too. They love snuggling on the couch with their bowls of popcorn, warm cocoa, and soft blankets before bed.
6. Local community activities
Especially during the holidays, there’s always something happening on the weekends. Look for light displays, gingerbread house displays, festivals of trees, live music performances, holiday stories, train rides, plays, etc. The list is endless!
7. Ice skating
Find a local skating rink and teach your kids to ice skate!
8. Make cookies
If you ask my kids what kind of cookie they want, it’s always sugar cookies. I think it’s because they love to lick the frosting off the top. We especially love to make festive ones that go with the current holiday and decorate them with lots of sprinkles. Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, you name it. If there’s a holiday, there are cookie cutters that are perfect for this cookie!
9. Roast marshmallows
This is really fun to do outside if you have a fire pit, but if not (like us) you can roast marshmallows over the stove!
10. Dance party
Our kids love to dance. We have Just Dance on the Wii and it’s a great way to start a dance party with your family. Or just crank up the tunes and go for it! You can even do flashbacks to your favorite songs growing up. You know you still remember the moves to Bye, Bye, Bye. 🙂