{"id":3368,"date":"2010-06-26T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2010-06-26T14:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/?p=3368"},"modified":"2010-06-24T21:22:31","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T02:22:31","slug":"birthday-tours-planning-balanced-family-activities-and-more-unique-ideas-from-real-experienced-mom-valerie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/birthday-tours-planning-balanced-family-activities-and-more-unique-ideas-from-real-experienced-mom-valerie\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday tours, planning balanced family activities and more unique ideas from Real (Experienced) Mom Valerie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the third installment of this week’s Real (Experienced) Mom. If you haven’t read her story yet, be sure to click back and read part one<\/a>, and part two.<\/p>\n

Now, here’s part three:<\/p>\n

Did you establish or follow any family traditions with your children that you especially cherished… then or now? Tell me about a few of your favorites.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A tradition that we did at Christmas involved a stuffed felt nativity. \u00a0There were so many ‘no touch’ things at Christmas that I made a nativity set they could use. \u00a0The first year I got them done I was still sewing Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. \u00a0He came just in time. \u00a0Every year after, Jesus could not make an appearance until Christmas. We used the to act out the Christmas story before any presents were opened. \u00a0It still comes out .<\/p>\n

We did not “do” Halloween but the guys did get treats. \u00a0We had our first fire of the season in the fireplace and turned off all the lights. \u00a0As they got older they did youth group activities.<\/p>\n

How did you celebrate birthdays with your children?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Birthdays were awesome.<\/p>\n

We incorporated a tour into each birthday that went with the current interest of the birthday boy. We did art museums, TV stations, fire stations, police (they even got locked up for a while). \u00a0We did behind scenes at the library, the grocery store, McDonald’s.\u00a0 The best one was probably the Air Guard where eight eight year olds got to sit in a fighter plane.<\/p>\n

These have to be planned in advance and it’s better to say you have a group that are interested in planes (or whatever) than to say you want to bring 8 squirrelly kids in to shake up their day. \u00a0We were rarely turned down. We brought them treats. \u00a0It didn’t cost anything and wouldn’t be the same theme as the neighbor’s party. \u00a0My husband, who had been an art teacher, always created the cake (Think Ace of Cakes on TV) to go with the theme. \u00a0The number of kids invited went up to eight when they were eight and then decreased. We still had four others of our own to bring on the tour!<\/p>\n

What were some of your family’s favorite things to do together when you had preschoolers? Elementary-school age children? High schoolers? Now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the guys were small, the fun was easier. \u00a0Just going outside or to the park was big. \u00a0They liked to put on\u00a0costumes\u00a0and pretend. \u00a0I made Batman and Robin capes that the boys wore for days on end. \u00a0One insisted on wearing \u00a0the cape to school. \u00a0The teacher asked him to remain in cape to protect the class. (yea!)<\/p>\n

As they got older, art and building projects were ways to involve the whole family. \u00a0Sports took up a lot of time. \u00a0There were just so many boys and different age levels.<\/p>\n

When summer hit we tried to give a healthy balance to activity. I used the verse from Luke 2:52 as a guide. \u00a0“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>I tried to plan one thing from four guidelines: educational, physical, spiritual and relational.<\/p>\n