Two weeks ago we had Train night, in honor of the littler ones. I set up a wooden track as our table centerpiece, and battery powered engines chugged along in circles while we ate.  They were kind of noisy.

Last week we ate out at a Middle Eastern / Lebanese restaurant and then visited the local library.

Last night after our meal, we watched slideshows of old digital photos on the big screen.  Then we had a Scavenger Hunt game - boys against girls.  I had made up 24 items such as “something blue” or “something shiny” earlier in the day.  Because I was the one to create as well as participate, to make it fair I folded each one, placed in a bowl and had each team randomly pick out 12.

The boys won. 

Posting about Family Nights has slipped through the cracks, I guess.  We have been enjoying them though!

This Monday we had an Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage with an old Irish bread recipe.  Barm breck, or something like that.  We watched a movie afterwards.

The week before that, Family Night was somewhat of a slumber party theme.  We all wore our pajamas while eating dinner.  We played games afterward, one of them being a silly one called Pillow Toss.  I wrote a variety of random things on small slips of paper (things like dance a jig, pretend you’re a horse, sing a song) and stuffed them inside a pillow.  We passed around the pillow and whoever had it when the rhyme ended had to pull out a paper and do whatever it said on it.

The week before that we had a normal supper, and then did a craft afterwards.  In honor of the upcoming holiday, we decorated small wooden shamrocks with glitter and various little plastic Irish doodads.

I think that brings us up-to-date!

This past Monday, I had a Family Night theme in my head that was put on hold when Skylar seemed to be coming down with the flu. It’ll have to wait for next week.

So we ended up having a fairly ‘normal’ meal of roast chicken, spinach, snap peas, potatoes and strawberry shortcake.

Afterwards, we played games. Pass the Orange (try to pass an orange with feet without dropping it) Who Has the Slipper (person in the middle closes eyes while everyone else passes slipper, then tries to guess who has the slipper) except we used the orange again.

The favorite game was when we all took turns adding one sentence to a story. I laughed to tears at times! Some of the sentences were quite creative. A horse named Dale, running a circus, and making giant robots were the highlights.

Last night was Monday, which means it was…. FAMILY NIGHT!

We ate under the table.  And just for fun, we covered the sides with sheets.  Since that wasn’t dangerous enough, we added candlelight.

Food consisted of finger food so we didn’t have to worry about such silly things as plates and silverware.  Shredded beef in pastry, small bread slices with melted cheese, and orange slices.  For dessert I simply cut up a few candy bars into bite size pieces.

Afterwards, we all watched a movie together.

It was a festival of love here last night.
Caaaaan yeeoooouuu feeeeel the loooove toniiiiiight?”

Okay, come back. I’ll stop singing!

We had heart shaped everything.

Heart shaped meatloaf.

Heart shaped golden beets.

Heart shaped biscuits

Heart shaped cookie

If I could’ve come up with a way to make the tossed salad a heart, I would’ve. We lit candles, of course, and earlier in the day we made the hanging hearts for the ceiling light.

After we ate, we played the family version of Spin the Bottle. The spinner had to say something they loved about whomever the bottle pointed to. After that we played a game called Gigglebelly that is as ridiculous as it sounds. Then we made tissue paper flowers!

Um, Cruiz? What kind of face is that?

That’s better!

We are away from home this week, so there wasn’t a regular Family Night.   We did enjoy a wonderful meal with some friends though!

I have neglected posting about our last couple of Family Nights, due to so much time working on the new web designs.  I am finished (besides a few touch-ups and link fixes) with this site, my personal one, Robb’s extra work one (The Green Stewards).  I still haven’t gotten our church one finished, as the podcast plugins are giving me hassles.

Anyways, back to Family Nights.  For both of the last ones we just had a normal meal.  No eating off the table!  One night we had ‘live television’ interviews.  We interviewed each other, asking simple questions, while recording it.  Then, while the children cleaned up the meal, I made all the clips into a movie.  We watched the interviews while we ate dessert.  What a riot.

The other night we each took several slips of paper.  On each paper we wrote a family member’s name and an adjective that described them.  Then we piled all the papers in the middle of the table.  Taking turns, we would draw a slip of paper and read the adjective.  Everyone else (besides the person who had written it) would have to guess who the adjective was describing.   Some of the words the children chose were so funny!  The only rules were that the adjective chosen had to be a kind one.  Ahem.

We started Monday night off by eating like pigs.

The kids didn’t know what to think when I dumped the whole pot of spaghetti noodles and homemade meatballs in the center of the table.

They were still taking it in when I returned with the bowl of broccoli and dumped that on the table, too!

We did use forks, but ate directly from the “trough”.  Too fun.

After supper was cleaned up, we played a couple games.  First, a relay race where each person on each team had to take turns putting on a hat, scarf and gloves, walking around a chair, then removing the winter gear.

Spence was soooo slow that we all had a good laugh!

The next game was the No Smiling game.  Whoever was “It” had to try and make all the others smile.  If you did, you were out.  The last person to left won, and was the next to be “It”.

We ended the evening with some quiet storybook reading.

I sometimes have this moment when it suddenly hits me how quickly time passes and I think, “Am I going to miss it?  Am I going to be standing in an empty house, with my children all grown and moved away, and mourn?  Will I yearn to redo this all and really live it?”

So often throughout the day, I will be specifically noticing and appreciating something about a child and think, “I want to remember this moment forever.”  The look on their face, or the funny thing they just said.  Or just the feeling in that few seconds where nothing really seems important except that connection.   I wish that I had a camera in my head that I could just *click* blink my eyes and capture it forever.

Perhaps more often though, I am busy and distracted.  My mind is preoccupied with the task at hand and full of all there is yet to do.  I’m not even taking note of the treasured snapshots around me, let alone enjoying them.

How easy it is to allow one day to slip into the next, without consciously basking in the blessings.

With that in mind, Monday evenings in the Klaty household are now Family Night.  Sure, we’re a family together here almost every night, but not always mindfully.

We kicked off the evening with a fun meal of fondue.  We had cheese fondue with 3 kinds of bread, broccoli, kielbasa, shrimp, and apples.  This was followed by chocolate fondue with pears, raspberries and butter cake.  We were stuffed.

After the meal was cleaned up, we all played hide and seek.  It’s amazing how such a simple thing like that makes a child cheer.   And if there’s one thing this house is made for, it’s a good game of Hide-n-Seek.

A little helpful tip for those of you, like me, who haven’t played in a while.  Remember to use the bathroom before you attempt to remain quiet and still for several minutes.  Trust me, that will be all you think about.

After we tired of that, we played Simon Says.

I am really, really bad at that game.