Family Holiday Game Time!!!

Reposting my family game from two years ago... If you are looking for a game to play, feel free to steal this one! I need something new this year... Any ideas???

Just wanted to share this game I made up for my family to play on Christmas Eve 07. It was a HUGE hit with everyone. I thought I would share it & you could save it for next year or another family gathering... if you are looking for a fun family activity. I know I searched online and could only find Power Point Christmas Jeopardy and nothing too much more exciting. So I tweaked a friends idea and came up with this game. I had each family member send me (keeping their answers only to me) the name of their favorite song, favorite guilty pleasure, favorite Christmas song, a song that reminded them of the person they were buying for (we each bought for one person this year), and a song that would be a great song for our family theme song (you know, if your family was on TV, what song would start the show). I put all the songs on my ipod so that I could play them when needed throughout the 5 rounds (I only played songs in three of the five rounds and only played like 30 seconds from each song). The game sheet is attached in PDF. It is printed two sided and folded like a brochure. Below you can download it in Publisher (which you can modify to fit your family) or in PDF. Of course there were prizes for the big winners! You can get creative with that! I also burned each couple five CD's that included all the chosen songs. It was an interesting collections, to say the least... especially when your age span is 15 to 60 years. Once you open a file below, you will have a better understanding of how the game works. Hopefully one of you will enjoy this game as much as we did!!
Christmas Rock'in Game is PDF

Christmas Rock'in Game is PUB

If you have a family game idea for the holiday, please comment below... I am always looking for new ideas!!!

We also played Scene-It: which is another fun family game that can be played in teams. Below you will find links to the Scene-It games found on Amazon.

Daddy Birthday Poem

My favorite man turned 36 the other night... The kids had fun making the hand print frame above. They both made a hand print and selected a favorite picture to place on the frame... I wrote the poem and printed it on a printable overlay:

Ten fingers waving to say, "Yeah!"
Our Daddy is 36 today!

C says, I love Daddy to play horsey with me!
Z says, Daddy and I love watching the Penguins and Crosby!

Daddy, our hands will continue to grow and bigger we will get.
Still we will always love you more than you can ever bet.

Hold us always in your thoughts and remember when we are apart,
You can look up and see our hands and know you hold our hearts.

-- Something for Daddy to display at wok and it was fun and easy to make!

Magical Birthday Parties!

I LOVE parties!!! Cannot stress that enough. Always have since I was a kid. I love fancy table clothes, balloons, decorations, and the happy feelings! I remember as a kid making confetti out of a hole punch for a week so I could throw it at my friend on her birthday. As an adult, I LOVE planning a party or hosting an event. It can be stressful, but the fun and the final outcome out weigh the stress.

This year I got the best award for my party madness... as I was working on the favors for my sons party, my son came to check out the goods and said; "Mom, you always make my parties so fun and you work so hard for me!" That made it all worth it!!!

My kids will only want the themed parties for a few years... pretty soon they will be all grown up and I hope they will think back to their birthdays with fond memories. I love seeing my kids light up at their birthday parties. Some people probably don't agree will my method and may think I am spoiling my kids... but I don't think so... Birthdays are special days and is their one day to feel like the king or queen on the day... The rest of the year, it normal and we try not to live with lots of glitter and glitz.

Well, this year I took the easy road (unlike last year and the year before), for my son's 7th Birthday Party and had the party at an Ooogles and Googles instead of our home... Totally stress free for me. All I did was make the favors. My son choose the theme of wizards. The party was so much fun. All the party goers became wizards. Dressed in the wizard hat an all. They even had the opportunity to make a magic potion that bubbled up (baking soda and vinegar in a mini cauldron). The kids had a blast, my son loved it, and I just took pictures and enjoyed. Wow!

My only contribution was the goodies bags. I love making goodies bags for my kids parties. The picture above shows this years goodie bag. It had a Star Wars Pez Dispenser, Magic Wand Candy (from Oriental Trading), Eye Ball (Oriental Trading), Magic Stickers (Oriental Trading), Box of Tricks (Michael's Dollar Bins), skull candy bracelet (Michael's). I bargain hunt all year for treats to put in the bags and every year I make a CD of my son's favorite songs. This year most of the songs were sports related... WE are living in the CITY of CHAMPIONS, you know! I love make the CD label and collecting the songs in one place.

You can view my Cars, Thomas, Spiderman, and Star Wars CD's Too!

Every year, my mom makes her famous cookies... Below were this year's magic cookie... They were yummy.

In the past she has made; trains, spider man, and darth vader cookies...

Another birthday tradition I have is that I make my kids cakes every year using the Wilton Pans. People think it is so hard... but really it takes time, but is easy to do. I love the finished product. This year was Scooby and Little Mermaid!

Hopefully you will find an idea or two you can use for a party you are planning! Have fun!