Family Fun Night by Emma

Emma is writing this post. Daddy is merely taking dictation and helping organize.

I planned a very fun family fun night for us.

First we started at Acapulco’s Mexican Restaurant in Stillwater. I didn’t like my dinner: a grilled cheese sandwich, and we had to order chicken rings. I didn’t know chicken came in rings! I love chicken rings (but only with ketchup)! It was really fun, but I didn’t get to have my chicken rings until we were leaving.

Then we went to the library. We got to read a book about Christmas trees. There were lots of kids there.
(NOTE: Emma typed the 3 sentences above. It only took 15 minutes.)

We got to go to a tree lighting ceremony in the green with candy canes and cookies and hot chocolate (that mommy accidentally threw away). It was really hot by the campfire, but really cold away from it. And we were playing freeze tag. It was really fun, I got caught with the player, cause he tagged me and I was frozen.

Then Santa Claus showed up on his fire truck. He has a white beard. My brother and I got to shake his hand. He has a red jacket.

Q: “Daddy does Santa take off his clothes ever or does he just go around the world?”
A: “I think he does both. I think he travels around the world, but when he’s home he puts on his jammies.”

Family Fun Night: Pumpkin Carving

For Family Fun Night (our second this week) we did some pumpkin carving.

We talked a little about how carving pumpkins in a lot like what God does for us:

1. First, he pulls us out the pumpkin patch and cleans us off.
   
2. Then he opens us up and scoops out all the bad stuff (i.e. fear, doubt, anger).
   
3. After that, he puts a big smile on our faces.
   
4. Finally, he puts his light inside of us for the whole world to see.
   

We made some really yummy pumpkin seeds with a recipe that had sugar, cumin, pepper and cinnamon. Not sure how this fits in the analogy, but that sin sure was tasty!

More Lake Elmo Park Reserve

This week for Family Fun Night we went back to Lake Elmo Park Reserve – this time to the beach and to cook out. I got to use some of my homemade BBQ sauce that I’ve been bottling and Jake set the table while Emma, Tara, and Abby played at the beach.

The kids really love the beach. It was a real struggle to find a grill to use, but a nice family let us use theirs.

The park was crawling with people. We love the fact that there is a lifeguard there (not that we get more than a few feet away from the kids at this age).

Dinner really came out. I LOVE that BBQ sauce!! Next time we’re going to need to bring more chicken.

Family Fun Night @ MarketFest

We had a nice Family Fun Night at MarketFest in White Bear Lake.

The kids couldn’t wait to get there and start spending their money on treats and rides. Tara sprung for some crazy yummy ice-cream sandwiches (they used hot cookies and some great ice cream)… amazing.

Emma wanted to do the bungee ride, which initially scared Jake. I was pretty impressed that Emma would try something like that at 4. Jake got over his fear pretty quickly, but had already missed a place in line.

While Emma was waiting in line (long, long time), Jake got to play some kind of ducky game, shoot water balloons, and run an obstacle course.

It was a ton of fun!

Family Fun Night

What’s family fun night? It’s one night a week that we take just to do something fun as a family. It’s a great way for us to always focus on slowing down and taking time to enjoy being a family. This has been something that Daddy has been suggesting for years and we finally instituted it with great success this past spring.

Tonight’s Family Fun Night theme was family movie night. It started with Jake & Emma drawing movie posters. Everyone got to make a treat movie mix. This consisted of a variety of candy choices (Rolos, M&Ms, Fruit Chews, Starburst, Pringles & Cherries) that they got to pick and put in a little baggie to enjoy during the move. The feature movie was Bugs Bunny. Everyone enjoyed it! We finished the evening with make your sundaes that included daddy’s favorite magic shell. Abby was mostly oblivious, but enjoyed a lot of high fives and crawling all over and exploring.

Last Week Family Fun Night: We enjoyed a great evening at Market Fest. The kids got to play in 2 bounce houses: a giant slide and pirate ship obstacle course. We got some fresh squeezed lemonade and a few treats. It was a great summer evening in MN and we made it back to the car just in time for the rain to start. It’s really great living in White Bear Lake. Market Fest is just one of the things that makes White Bear Lake a great little community. Of course the lake is awesome, I have been luck enough to go running by the lake almost every week day at 5am.