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The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

June 16, 2015

{family} One Fun Thing a Day: Update No.01

We are entering our third week of One Fun Thing a Day and already, I think it has been so fruitful for us as a family.  As you’ll see below, the activities are super simple, don’t require a lot of money, and often are completed within 15-20 minutes.  

While the kids always love a good surprise, I think the real reason they are continually excited is because it’s a full family experience.  I’m not just the teacher, directing the show and standing to the side.  I’m right in there with them (and Daddy too on the weekends): flying my airplane, eating my lunch on the picnic blanket, and pushing them on the swings at the park.  

One Fun Thing a Day is another lesson in what really matters most: time.    

Day 01 // Cooking School: English Muffin Pizzas.  The boys have been asking to learn how to make food on their own, so we started with an easy culinary favorite.  I set out all of the ingredients and we all went to town.  Their favorite part was “decorating” with mini pepperonis. 


Day 02 // Paper Airplanes.  After trying a Youtube video for a complicated design and getting super confused, we scrapped that idea and I taught them how to fold a classic paper airplane.  They colored and decorated and then we had a throwing challenge (this was my inspiration).


Day 03 // Indoor Picnic and a Movie.  It was a rainy day, so instead of a picnic at the park, we had a picnic and a movie inside.  I made them each a paper bag lunch, complete with a juice box and cookies.  It was a big hit.    


Day 04 // Cooking School: Chocolate Covered Strawberries.  It was another rainy day, so we had cooking class again.  We melted milk chocolate chips in a homemade double broiler and then the kids each had five strawberries to dip as they pleased.  I saved mine for Mark.


Day 05 // National Doughnut Day!  Thank goodness for social media.  After hearing that this was a “thing”, the day practically wrote itself.  We always love a good doughnut!

Day 06 // Decorating Plates using a MakIt Kit.  The kids are so excited about this project.  We completed step one of the kit, which was drawing designs on special paper.  The finish products totally fit their personalities.  Now to get them in the mail to be turned into plates.


Day 07 // Homemade Shooting Range.  Mark recently went to the shooting range and the boys thought it sounded so cool.  We made them their own with cardboard boxes and tissue paper.  It was a great opportunity to talk about responsibility and safety and it was fun for all of us too!   


Day 08 // Sumo Wrestling.  I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.  If you were a fly on the wall, you have seen three boys with pillows stuffed into their daddy’s t-shirts, a mama who tried to do the same (let’s just say there was a little less room, ahem…) and Sophie and a baby looking at us like we’d lost our minds.  


Day 09 // Rubberband Powered Lego Cars. After about 20 minutes of digging through Lego bins to find the right pieces, I thought this may be our first dud.  (I think I was more frustrated than they were, hah).  Fortunately, their perseverance paid off, we found what we needed and it even worked!  We used this tutorial.


Day 10 // Fan fort.  With this picture as inspiration, we made a fort using a big fan and a queen sized fitted sheet.  All four were able to squeeze in (I could only fit with two of them) and they loved it.  They even requested snacks!

Day 11 // Discover a new playground.  We set out bright and early on our adventure to find a new playground.  We stayed over an hour and when they were sufficiently exhausted and sweaty, we found the nearest Chick-Fil-A for lemonades.


Day 12 // DIY Slushies.  It was over 90 degrees, so the obvious choice was to make something cool and refreshing.  We tried this recipe and it worked like a charm!  The kids loved it, but since I’ve been reducing all forms of sugar in my diet, I couldn’t drink more than a sip or two.  I found it sicky sweet, but the kids didn’t have a problem. 


Day 13 // Lowes Build & Grow Clinic.  This was the first time we’ve taken advantage of this clinic (it’s FREE!) and it was great!  Mark took the three oldest and they really enjoyed it.  The summer series is all about super heroes and they made Ironman and his Avenjet (“and I even got to use a hammer, mama!”).  They can’t wait to go again.


Day 14 // New Lego Set.  We surprised the kids with a new Lego set of just different colored pieces and we used our imaginations to build something new.  (Namely, anything other than Star Wars and super heroes…) 


Day 15 // Tissue Paper Suncatchers.  We were long overdue for a craft!  This was an easy one that used items we already had at home (you just need contact paper and different colored tissue paper).  I love the end result!




Our Favorites so Far:
M: Slushies and Sumo
D: Lowe’s Build & Grow and Designing Plates
J: Fan fort and English Muffin Pizzas
S: New Playground

June 3, 2015

{family} One Fun Thing a Day 2015: The Plan

It’s summertime and I have one goal for the next few months: Have fun and make memories as a family.


Homeschooling has been very rewarding for us this year, but I’m ready to put down my teacher hat for awhile and just be mom.  Sure, I still deal with daily discipline, but I’m so ready to simply enjoy my kids.  So inspired by Little Bit Funky, we are starting One Fun Thing a Day.  The rules are simple: the kids are responsible for getting their morning chores completed without a fuss (getting dressed, brushing teeth, making their bed, helping clean up breakfast) and then they can participate in the activity.  Every day, we’ll do something new and I want to join in too!


Now please don’t misunderstand me.  This isn’t one of those projects to over-schedule and micro-manage every minute of my children’s day.  I don’t have lots of money to spend and nothing will really be mind-blowing in terms of excitement.  Some days, we may be finished in 10 minutes!  I just want us to spend time together.  My hope is that, ten years down the line, they will look back at this summer (and the summers to come) with fondness.  Not because anything was out-of-this-world spectacular (no trips to Disney or Hawaii are in our near future!), but because we made memories together with lots of laughs and probably a few messes.  


Here are a few of the ideas I’ve jotted down:

  • Cooking Class: make English Muffin pizzas
  • Paper airplanes 
  • Take a picnic lunch to the park
  • Design your own plate with a MakIt kit
  • Cooking Class: make chocolate covered strawberries
  • Sweet Frog visit
  • Build a huge fort with blankets: try a fan fort?
  • Find a new playground
  • Cooking Class: make chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches
  • Lowe’s Build & Grow Clinic
  • DIY Slurpees
  • Visit Daddy at his office and take him out to lunch
  • Build rubber band powered Lego cars
  • Chopped Challenge: Daddy team vs. Mamma team
  • New water guns
  • Attend a kids program at the library
  • Cooking Class: make a Fourth of July flag cake
  • Make marbled paper with shaving cream
  • Take the kids to 5 Below and let them pick anything in the store
  • Tie-dye T-shirts
  • Water balloon fight
  • $1 movie at the theater

I plan to do another post (maybe monthly?) sharing what we did, but you can also follow our hashtag on Instagram, #bwfonefunthingaday2015, for daily updates too!

UPDATE: Check out the details for Days 1-15 here!  

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