Football Night!

This is a Family Night we actually have not done before, but plan on doing so in the near future.  My cousin gave me the idea when she asked me for some ideas to make football more fun.  We are huge Seahawks fans, so we sort of have a mini family night each week when they are on TV.  First of all we all have to wear our Seahawks shirts (wear whatever team you like or just their colors if you don't have a shirt with a logo on it).  We also like to decorate when we have Super Bowl parties or watch Seahawks games.  You can go all out with streamers and balloons; plates, cups and napkins if you like.  Our daughter, Emma, likes to make Seahawks signs to display when they play.  Give your kids poster board and markers or paints of your favorite team and have them come up with their own signs.

When we watch football we like to have taco bowls (a recipe by Rachel Ray).  The recipe is posted at the end.  You can come up with ideas that go along with football, for example: nachos, pizza, wings etc.  For dessert: football shaped cake! Buy cake mix of your favorite variety and bake in a rectangular pan.  Cut in the shape of a football and frost with chocolate frosting.  Pipe laces with white frosting.

If you don't want to watch a game or there isn't one on, you can play touch football.  My family likes to do this Thanksgiving morning, but why not do this another time. If the weather is too bad to play in (unless you are hard core), play tabletop football. 

The following are some ideas we have done for Super Bowl parties that would work for a Football Family Night:  bingo-the bingo that we downloaded for our Super Bowl party would not work for just any game, but I found a couple websites (and linked one of them here) that offer free bingo cards.  You have to register to get a certain amount for free.

Another game we have played is match the football team to their city, you can find that here.  

Taco Bowls, from Rachael Ray
  4 servings

1 sack tortilla chips
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 pounds ground beef
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 firm avocados
4 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
A handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
4 cups shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high hear.  Add 2 tablespoons of the EVOO.  Add the beef to the skillet and brown and crumble it for 5 minutes.  To the browned meat add half the chopped jalapeno, three fourths of the chopped onions, and all of the garlic.  Season the meat with the cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper.  Cook them together for 5 minutes more, then add about a cup of water and reduce the heat to low.

Halve and separate the avocados. Remove the pit with a spoon.  Use a small knife to dice the avocado while still in the skin.  Scoop out the diced flesh and place it in a bowl.  Combine the tomatoes, remaining onions, remaining jalapeno, and the cilantro gently with the avocado and dress the salad with the lemon juice, the remaining tablespoon of EVOO, and salt to taste.

Layer a handful or two of the chips (slightly crushed) into soup or chili bowls and top them with a handful of cheese.  Fill the bowls with taco meat and top with more cheese, then mound some salad on top and serve.

What have you done with your family to make watching football together fun?  What kind of football related traditions does your family have?

Halloween Family Night 2013

 Here are some pictures from our latest Halloween Family Night.  We had fun dressing up!  We watched the Halloween episode of Duck Dynasty and since it mentioned "Thriller", my husband found the music video on line.  The kids had never seen it before.  We did a skeleton scavenger hunt.  That was all I had planned, but we were still in the partying mood, so then we played hide-and-go-seek in the dark and then watched a movie.

 As we were getting ready to make our calzone snake, we remembered that we didn't follow the recipe that I posted exactly.  I mentioned making a couple changes, all we did was put in ingredients for a regular pizza: a tomato based pizza sauce (I make a homemade one, but you can buy sauce too-Bobali is good), mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, and mushrooms.

Halloween Family Night

I honestly do not remember our very first Family Night, but since it is almost Halloween I thought we would start there.  The best thing about this Family Night was dressing up and the food! We have done this two years in a row.  It is fun trying to come up with a costume with items you already own.  As you can see from the picture, I was a redneck (and yes we already had the crazy hair).  My daughter, Emma, came up with the idea to do a Halloween Family Night and she wanted to find some recipes that would go along with our theme.  After doing a search on the internet (where we get some of our ideas), I found some great recipes. 
For our main course we had a "Spooky Calzone Snake"  (we adjust the recipe according to what we like in a calzone, for example, we don't use the ricotta cheese and we added sausage)and to drink we had "Boo Beverage".  Both of which were so good we have made them the last two years and will probably make them again this year.  My family and I love desserts, so we had to incorporate that into our night as well.  The first year Emma and I made "Spider Cupcakes" and last year we made "Black Cat Brownie" (if you want a thicker "cat", use 2 boxes of brownie mix).  This year we are going to go with "Pudding Dirt Cups"-you can add whatever you like to make it more "gross", like gummy worms or any Halloween themed candy.  After dinner, we enjoyed watching Nightmare Before Christmas and a few Scooby Doo episodes. One activity the kids enjoy doing are scavenger or treasure hunts, which they like to make up on their own.  The first year we did a Halloween Family Night, my daughter hid her stuffed cats with clues.  She gave us a clue to start with and it led to the first cat, which led us to another cat (and so on).  The last clue led to some treasure (which was some candy). This year I found a game that sounds like fun and we might try is a skeleton scavenger hunt.
That's an idea of what our family has done in the past and is planning to do this year.  What are some of the things that your family likes to do for Halloween?

Welcome to our Family Nights!

First off let me tell you a little about my family and I.  My husband and I have been married 18 years and have 3 wonderful kids: Alec (15), Zachary (13), and Emma (11). My husband is a pastor and I home school our children.  We have done Family Nights for a long time now and we love it!

Family Night came about because of a desire to bring our family together and have fun.  The problem was that I could not find any books or materials that had Family Night ideas just for fun. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for family devotions and learning times, but we wanted time just for goofing off and growing closer as a family. So since we couldn't find any resources, we decided to come up with our own Family Nights.

Our family set aside one night a week for our Family Night, in our case, Fridays.  We try and reserve this night just for our Family Night, but life happens (sports, youth group activities, etc) and we have to be flexible. Sometimes we have to change nights; other times we will skip a couple weeks.  When life gets hectic, we will just have pizza and a movie (recently we took a few weeks and watched the Avengers movie and all the movies relating to it for our Family Night). We rotate each week as to who is in charge.  Whose ever night it is, they have to come up with a theme and one or more activities. They also get to choose what to have for dinner and often our food even goes with the nights theme.  Sometimes we even dress up. Also, keep in mind the ages of your kids and what is appropriate at their age level.  When it is the kids' turn, they have to check in with mom or dad as to what they are going to do on their night. Our Family Night rule: No Complaining!!

Each week I will post a Family Night theme that we have done and maybe add some new things that we could have done or what I would have done differently.   You may even see some pictures that we have taken from time to time. Please feel free to use our ideas or adjust them to fit your family.  Even little ones can plan a night, with help from dad or mom. I hope this will inspire you to try a Family Night and maybe make it a tradition in your household.  If you have any questions or ideas you would like to share, please leave a comment.