Family Night

Friday Nights in our household is Family Night. I usually menu plan "fake take away" for Friday night and most weeks we also have dessert (which is fairly rare in this house). After tea we sit down and play either a card game or board game together. We find it a great way to end the week and the kids always look forward to Friday Night's. I'm hoping it is something they look back on fondly when they're grown and flown from the nest.

Before we instituted "Family Night" we always had the best of intentions of playing games together as a family but the old "roundtoit" ... well we all know how hard they are to find. :-) By having a routine of doing it regularly on a Friday night, we find it actually happens. At the moment our range of games is a little limited by our children's abilities but we are slowly expanding our collection. If anyone can recommend games that are suitable for a wide range of ages - let me know. It's always good to hear what others have found good.

It's not something we stick to "religiously". If we have something on on a Friday night, family night gets missed for that week. Occasionally if DH and I aren't feeling real great or the kids are overtired, we'll skip the game (or play a quick round of Uno).

Last night for Family Night we had a video night. The kids have been wanting to see Garfield 2 for quite some time now. I managed to pick it up on special at the Target Toy Sale while we were away but wouldn't let them watch it until last night. They have been looking forward to it all week. I think delayed gratification really enhanced the experience. Instead of the brief joy at buying the DVD they really wanted followed quickly by watching it and the experience is over, they had to wait almost a week to conclude the experience. I like to get good mileage out of $$ spent. LOL. By knowing exactly when they were going to get to watch it, I think that took the frustration out of waiting too.

For tea we had chicken kebabs and potato slices cooked on the BBQ with lettuce from our garden and grated cheese and carrot. We tend to go a bit lighter on the vegies on Friday nights. :-) Chicken kebabs are not what I'd normally class as "fake take away" but they are a favourite with the kids so I get away with it occasionally. There was a piece of homemade slice for dessert and then I made several batches of popcorn and served them up in milkshake cups. The kids thought it was the "best night ever". LOL. For around $20 we had tea and entertainment with snacks for 5 people. Can't get much better than dinner and a movie for $4 a head!

And I'm sure the DVD will get a good workout - the kids are still at that age where they want to watch the same movie over and over again. The 3 year old has already watched it twice today! He's not well (croup) so having a quiet home day with mum.