One of my favorite gifts to give our family for Christmas was this-
a box that included a beautiful nativity ornament and gift certificates for three activities for our family to enjoy together.
It's now six weeks after Christmas, and we've done them all. We've have a great time looking forward to each one and making fun memories, and I can honestly say that many of the other Christmas gifts we all gave and received have been played with, packed up, and pretty much forgotten about (maybe with the exception of the Magnatiles, which everyone still fights over almost daily). But these activities gave us something more to do during the sometimes boring weeks after the holidays are over, and these memories will stick with us long after the final hexbugs have been lost.
Activity Number 1- Bowling at the coolest bowling alley in town-
The kids have been wanting to check out the under-the-sea themed bowling alley since we moved here, and it didn't disappoint!
Just look at that giant shark!
And all those fish!
And the black lights! And all those smiles.
It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.
I was there, too. Just taking all of the pictures...
Activity Number 2- a pass to the local bounce house place. That was a great way to burn off a bit of cabin fever one exceptionally cold winter day. Not exactly picture-worthy, but it was a lot of fun, and we'll definitely be going there again before this long winter is over.
Activity Number 3- ice skating!
We have had a few unseasonably warm days this winter, and we originally wanted to go ice skating on one of those 50 degree days. But it worked out best that we went on a 28 degree day, and that ended up being perfect, even when it started to snow.
The rink was practically empty, which gave us all the room we needed to navigate the ice. Poor Noah was helpless on his skates (as we expected he would be) but he still was in awe of the " Ice! Ice skating!" Jason and I took turns making laps with him and helping out the bigger kids.
Emma and Adam used ice walkers, and Emma was surprisingly good! She and I even took a few laps without the walker. Her rosy-cheeked smile stuck with her the whole time, and she kept wanting to go back for more (with quick sips of hot cocoa in between each lap).
Adam, bless his sweet heart, was awful. Really, really awful. I know someday he'll be reading this and may not appreciate hearing that, but you have to understand that Adam is very athletic and very good at so many physical things- he won our bowling game up there, he learned how to ride a bike without training wheels just a few months after Leah, he does headstands on furniture, he runs circles around the rest of us, he can do tons of sit-ups without breaking a sweat, and just the other day he held the plank position for a ridiculously long time without any effort at all. He's a six-year-old monkey with a six-pack.
But for whatever reason, he just could not figure out ice skating. Maybe he thought you are supposed to skate on the sides of the blades instead of balancing on the actual blades? The poor boy looked like a sailor without his sea legs (at one point I actually asked him as kindly as I possibly could if he was just pretending to be unable to stay upright) but he didn't give up! He told me that he had challenged himself to keep trying until he was a perfect ice skater, and he certainly gave it some good effort. Thank goodness he had a walker, or we'd surely have a broken bone today.
Of course, the whole thing was completely adorable to watch.
Leah, who is my doesn't-like-to-get-sweaty and often wonders why anyone would chose to participate in anything athletic over activities that are musical or creative child, had a wonderful time! And she was good! She fell a time or two, but she had a genuinely good time trying out this new fun activity.
And she was the last one off the ice, long after Jason had taken the littlest two back to warm up in the car. Her newly acquired roller skating skills transferred easily onto the ice, and she clearly enjoyed herself. And I loved watching her! It kills me that she is such a big girl- no longer a baby that I have to take care of (or carry around on the ice), but a little friend that I got to hold hands with and chat with.
We will definitely be doing another family fun box in Christmases of the future! This was a great way to spread out the holiday cheer and intentionally create fun family experiences that we all enjoyed.
