Family Movie Night

It has been said that the family that plays together stays together. Mike and I are trying to build a solid foundation for both the girls and our family as a whole. One that will carry them into those problematic teen years. The ones where they may be tempted to pierce their nose/eyebrow/bellybutton/tongue or get a tattoo or swear they're going to hate us forever or.... well I could go on and on, but why give them ideas? We're trying to be proactive in the hopes that the teen angst will be kept to a minimum. Our game plan for this involves many layers, discipline for one, unconditional love, routine, division of labour between all family members and then we leave time for family fun.

The family fun is something relatively new to us in an organized sense. I mean we have fun as a family everyday. We play kitchen soccer and hockey spontaneously. Bathtime is fun, well for Abby it is, Maya's not quite into it 100% yet. Reading stories at bedtime, making dinner, getting the mail, taking Maya for walks. All of that is fun. Somethings are done as a family, some just Abby and I or the girls and I. Likewise sometimes it fun for just Mike and Abby, like going to the water store or the pizza store. This new family fun is planned out events like when we took Abby bowling. That was family date night. We all had a blast and even Mike suggested we go bowling again soon. Actually the next family date night is set for next weekend to see Ice Age: The Meltdown. It will be Abby's first trip to the movie theater and she's excited to be seeing a movie at "the castle".

We also have family game night. I love board games and I have been waiting for Abby to get older to have family game night. Right now our game slection is pretty limited. We have Dora dominoes, Dora/My Little Pony Memory and Candyland. We play Candyland the most for family game night. Abby some how always manages to win. Don't ask me how Mike and I are certainly trying to win. It seems that whenever we get close to CandyCastle we pull one of the candy cards that sends us back to the beginning of the game. She loves playing games and whenever she sees a commercial for a board games she asks if she can have it. Right now her favourites are Lucky Ducks and Buckaroo. Dave and I used to play Buckaroo at my Grandma's house when we were kids. It was nice to see it had been re-released.

Last night we had our first Family Movie Night. Well we attempted to have our first family movie night. After dinner and baths the four of us settled on the couch with popcorn to watch Madagascar. Popcorn for Mike, Abby and I, Maya was good with a bottle. Mike and I hadn't watched Madagascar yet, so we were looking forward to it. Abby split her time between Mike and I, cuddling first with one then the other. Maya was the first to fall asleep and was dispatched to her crib. Abby and I stretched out together on the couch and she was sawing logs minutes after that. I lost the coin toss and had to lug her 30+ pounds of sleeping dead weight up the stairs. A mere hour after that Mike and I had tucked ourselves into bed as well. Number of family members that saw the entire movie.... zero. Do we know how to party or what? To make up for not watching the entire thing last night Abby has watched it 45 times today.