Hi, Friends!
As you know, I am a huge proponent of getting out of the house with the kids. I love a weekend jam-packed with family activities. Family time just makes me happy. It makes my kids happy too. And ya know, all kids want is for the people they love to want to spend time with them. AND, if I am happy AND the kids are happy, that by default makes my husband happy, so weekend family activities are a win-win-win.
Now, just because I love to do fun things, doesn’t mean I love spending money. Sometimes it feels like every time we go do something as a family we have to spend a lot of money. No thanks. In an effort to make things as stress-free, fun, and inexpensive as possible, I came up with a few family activities we can enjoy this weekend.
My "Family Activity" Memories
Growing up, we spent most of our time together eating, watching movies, or at some type of youth sporting event. We would go out to dinner and then rent a movie or order pizza and rent a movie. It almost always involved a meal and a movie. We would stop by the video store on our way home from school/daycare and pick out movies for the weekend. My mom usually let us pick out whatever we wanted. Sometimes she would even let us pick out candy to go with it!
RIP video rental stores. I guess my kids will have fond memories of queuing up Netflix – HA!
As we got older, our weekends were spent together at sporting events. The fall was spent at the gym watching basketball games. The summers were spent at the baseball fields. I can remember having 4-5 games in a single weekend! It makes me tired thinking about how exhausting that had to have been for my parents.
Anyway, family activities don’t always have to cost a lot of money and they don’t always have to be a big production either. A family activity just has to be the family spending time together. For me, it was always the little things that made the best memories, like picking out which movie to watch or getting to lick the spoon when we made cookies.
Family Activity Requirements
There are a few things I look at before suggesting an activity to my family:
- Cost: Is it expensive? Every once in awhile an expensive activity is okay, you know, for a special occasion. However, if this is something we want to do regularly it needs to be fairly inexpensive.
- Location: Do we have to leave the house? How far of a drive is it? I don’t mind getting out (obviously), but I have to be in the right mood.
- Time Commitment: An hour or two is perfect. The time commitment and location go hand-in-hand. If I have to drive a long way to get there, it better be entertaining for more than an hour or two. However, if we are just staying home, I don’t care if the activity only takes 15 minutes.
- Will it be crowded? Not a huge fan of crowds. I find them to be draining. I really have to be mentally prepared to take on a huge crowd.
Weekend Family Activities
1. Pizza & Board Games. Classic family night. No fuss, no dishes, no prep. Easy peasy. Check out RetailMeNot to see if there are any coupons available at a pizza place near you.
2. Everyone helps fix dinner. This is self explanatory, but during this activity everyone hangs out in the kitchen and everyone helps. Tasks should be assigned based on the ages of the family members. Someone chops the vegetables, someone stirs, etc.
A great place for new recipes is Pinterest. I’m almost certain you can find a recipe for anything you want to make.
Helping fix dinner also helps (hopefully) instill a bit of gratitude in children. They get to see first hand how much work it takes to prepare meals for the family every single night. For more ways to instill gratitude click here.
3. Cooking Competition. Split up in the family into 2 teams. Decide on a theme. Is everyone making a dessert? Is everyone making a sandwich? You get it. Then let the cooking competition begin. Each team can find a recipe online or make one up as they go along. Either way, it is a great way to spend time together and possibly find a delicious recipe.
Again, utilize Pinterest to find some new competition-worthy recipes!
4. Free Donut & Barnes & Noble. Is the HOT light on? *Spoiler: It’s almost always on! For this weekend family activity, head over to Krispy Kreme to enjoy a free donut. Everyone receives 1 free donut when the “hot” light is on (Pick a dozen up for breakfast the next day too!). Once the donuts have been eaten, head over to Barnes & Noble (or your local book store) to read books & magazines for free. My friends and I spent SO MUCH TIME at Barnes & Noble in high school. We would grab a handful of magazines, cozy up in the comfortable chairs, and chat/read for an hour or so. Completely free (unless you find something you want/need to purchase, which almost always happens).
5. Movie & popcorn. Another classic family night. Queue up a fun movie (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, or Amazon Prime), pop a bunch of popcorn, and snuggle up for a relaxing night.
6. Ice cream sundae party. Everyone in my family has a mouth full of sweet teeth. We love any excuse to have dessert, especially ice cream. An ice cream sundae party is right up our alley! Grab some ice cream and a few toppings. Let everyone make the biggest ice cream sundae as they can. The kids will love it (and you will too) and it will be something they always remember. If you want to amp it up a notch, check out how Angela at About a Mom throws a simple Ice Cream Sundae Party.
Want More Family Activity Ideas?
Check out my Winter Activities for Kids for other suggestions of things to do as a family.
Now, go have fun with your family this weekend! Let me know what activity you decided on in the comments below!
Until next time!
Julie
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Desta forma raríssimo nas mulheres e regra nas
pequenos.
I love these fin family ideas, and can’t wait to try them with my family. Family time is the best time and finding ways to bond with your children to make memories is so worth it.
Thank you so much for reading!!!
These are all great family activities. We have so much fun doing the simplest activities together and make the best memories. Family fun time is the best. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for reading, Heather!
These are great family night activities. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for stopping by!
I love these family ideas and am saving these for when my daughters old enough! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Pizza and board game night is a favorite in my house! We try to do it at least once a month. So much fun!
Hi Mellissa! That’s wonderful! Thanks for stopping by!
Pinning for later, these ideas are perfect for my family, thank you!
Hi Ariana, Thank you so much for stopping by!
Hi Julie,
Super funny and super relatable post! I died laughing at the “queuing Netflix” joke! While reading your blog post, I thought about the video store I went to growing up, which was blockbuster! R.I.P Blockbusters!
Thanks for sharing,
Kayla | Mommy Blogger | My Motherhood Made Easy
http://www.mymotherhoodmadeeasy.com/
Hi Kayla! Thank you so much!
I love these ideas! Simple but fun!
Thanks!
These were all such great ideas. I can’t wait to try some of them with my family over the weekend😊
My fiancé and I were just talking about going into Block Buster and places like that to rent movies as kids and how our kids will never step foot in one, it’s a crazy thought!
Isn’t it so bizarre to think? Too funny!
Thanks for the fun ideas.
Thank you for stopping by to read!
Great post! These are some great family activities! One that we always do on Friday nights is ice cream and a movie.
How fun! Thank you for reading!
These are all such great tips to have a fun family weekend! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Charity!
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