DIY Wooden Growth Chart

My husband's parents always marked his growth on a door, but when they got rid of carpet, all of the measurements changed. My parents used the door frame, which worked until we moved and couldn't take the door frame with us. I wanted something to keep track of my children's growth that would last a long time, and that we could take with us when/if we moved. That's why I fell in love with the idea of a giant wooden ruler!

Rockin' Out this Summer!

Our city is going crazy over this new rock game...hiding and finding painted rocks!

In the collage above, the top two pictures are rocks we found, and the bottom two are rocks we painted and hid. The rules are simple:

• On the back of the rock, write the hashtag for your city. Check on Facebook to see if there's a group already, or start your own.
• Hide your rocks around town.
• If you find a rock, take a selfie or picture of it and post it to the group Facebook page.
• You can leave the rock, re-hide the rock somewhere else, or keep it. If you keep it, you have to replace it with a different painted rock.

In our community people of all ages are getting involved. It's so much fun finding rocks and there's a huge variety from talented artists, to rocks clearly painted by 2 year olds. My kids have spent hours painting, hiding and hunting for rocks.

I've read that it started as the Kindness Rocks Project, and has spread throughout the country. Get involved while your kids are out of school and see how much fun it is!

Family Hand-Print Turkey

There's nothing quite like kids' hand-prints to preserve just how little they were as they grew up, which is why I fell in love with the idea of a family hand-print turkey!

I can't wait to frame our turkey so I can pull it out year after year and remember how small (or big in the case of my 9 year old!) my kids' hands were in the year 2016. Look at the tiny purple hand of my 2 year old!

We traced each of our hands on construction paper. Then I traced a cup for the body of the turkey and free-handed the neck/head and beak. I printed out the "Thankful for Family" and "2016" on a piece of card stock and glued it all together.

Thank you Mainly Homemade for the cute idea! I will treasure this for years to come.

Paper Airplane Golf

If you’re looking for a fun family activity to do with young children, make a paper airplane for each member of the family and play airplane golf!

Use a hula hoop, box, or laundry basket to make the goal or hole that you’re aiming your airplanes for and take turns throwing your planes. Use the same rules as golf (furthest plane goes next, etc).

If you play this outside on a windy day it really evens out the playing field and gives (almost) everyone in the family a fair chance at winning. Have fun!

I’ll be linking up to Works for Me Wednesday, Kids Get Crafty, What are little boys made of?, We Made That Wednesday, Mom’s Library, Look What We Did,

Tradition!

If you’re carving pumpkins this year, a fun tradition to start or to continue is to take a family picture with your Jack-O-Lanterns! I’m sure many families already do this, but we started this 3 years ago, and those are some of my favorite pictures…it’s such a fun, simple way to capture and remember my kids at that stage in life.

Then, over the years you can print out past pictures and they make just about the cutest Halloween decorations ever!

I’m linking up to Family Time Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday.

Guest Post: Kathleen Thomas

Have a Family Night and Learn to Cook Together

Article submitted by Kathleen Thomas on behalf of Primrose Schools

Five Ways to Reclaim Family Fun in the Kitchen

With every family in short supply of time in general---let alone quality time together---it becomes critical to handle "must do" family tasks together. Though it may seem faster to cook while your preschooler is parked in front of the tube, in the long run it's really much better to use a kitchen as a classroom and a place to connect and prepare the family meal together. What's more, it makes sense for your budget's bottom line, your waist line, and your family time to keep meal time at home, and not at the restaurant, all things not always taught in child care. As long as you keep safety first and do your best to not stress out about little messes, cooking can be transformed into memorable family time, even for the smallest members of your brood.
Here are 5 ideas to make kitchen time into family time.