Scarves, notebooks, and ice cream

Each time we have a family night, it is planned by two or three children. From dinner to craft or game to movie, the kids make the decisions. With a little help from Mom, of course.

Last night's family night was brought to us by Eden and Hope. Their original plan was to serve mashed potatoes and boxed macaroni and cheese. There are a couple of problems with that from my perspective. They didn't see any problems with it. I decided to choose my battles. I vetoed the two starches and when they decided to keep the mac and cheese, I ignored the whole boxed thing.  The girls swapped the mashed potatoes for ham. They also made Jell-O and I added broccoli, a fact which they kept reminding everyone all evening, "We didn't pick the broccoli; Mom did."

It was HopeAnne's idea to make fleece scarves. Never mind that we're hopefully near the end of winter. But as was demonstrated during the evening, scarves can be used for a whole lot more than keeping the wind off your neck.  We also used the fleece to cover notebooks.

Their idea for dessert was to have an ice cream sculpting contest. Since this is America, Eden, the self-proclaimed judge, decided that everyone was a winner and we all won an official Eden autograph.

Synchronized candy testing

Yes, we borrowed an extra child for the evening

A unicorn

It was guessed to be a dog, then a teddy bear. Can't you see it's a koala bear?

A rapper with lots of bling, complete with microphone

Very creative, not sure what it was

The only problem with this family night was that I made the mistake of planning it on the night when we all lose an hour of sleep. After a late night movie and losing that hour, we might be just a little out of sorts today.

But it was worth it just to see the enthusiasm on the faces of these two and for all the family bonding, of course!  All day long they kept telling me how epic this family night was going to be. They didn't slip up when asked what we were eating or watching or making. Eden could barely stand the excitement so about an hour before we were to begin she said she was going to go to bed to make the time go faster. She fell asleep so yes, indeed, time did fly and when we woke her up it was time!

Until next time then...