Polls and Tips for Family Life

What did the shark say when it ate the clown fish? Tastes funny.

Why does a duck have feathers? To cover his butt quack

What did the triangle say to the circle? You're pointless.

Why should you never give Elsa a balloon? Because she’ll Let it Go.

Rosie the Riveter with jeans, blue button up shirt with sleeves rolled up, red bandana around the head, red lipstick.

Anyone else's kids saying "6 7" a million times a day? Make a big 6 out of a cardboard box, a 7 for a friend, and carry it around together for the 2025 costume of the year. (Those big number balloons would be perfect for this, too.)

My husband dressed up as a picnic table one year at last minute, to match our son's ant costume. He cut out a big rectangle from a cardboard box, and hot glued some of the kids' toy food onto it, including a tablecloth and toy dishes. Then he hung it around his neck using some yarn, and voila! A picnic table. It was done in less than 30 minutes, and he got so many compliments!

Scarecrow is an easy diy costume. Jeans, button down plaid shirt, floppy hat. Use makeup or facepaint for a brown nose and red circles on cheeks.

If you were an Olympic gold-medal athlete, which sporting event would you want it to be in?

How were you kind to someone today?

If you could have any super power, what would it be, and why?

If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

Goldfish crackers, of course! They will almost certainly get all over your car, but IMO are still worth it for the ease and universal kid appeal.

Granola bars are so easy to travel with, and are a hearty road trip snack that still tastes like a treat.

Grapes are good healthy road trip snacks as they hold up much better than most other fresh fruit while traveling. If you've got little ones, you can cut them after washing to avoid a possible choke hazard.

Apple sauce or other fruit pouches.

Looking for seashells is a classic beach activity for kids that mine love to do every single time we go. I usually set a limit for how many they can bring home each time, and have learned to designate a special jar or mesh bag as the "seashell" holder to avoid creating an entire beach at home!

My kids LOVE using grabbers, and picking up litter at the beach is really and truly one of their favorite beach activities - helping the environment is just a bonus. I've gotten grabbers on Amazon, at the dollar store, and at Costco, and they all seem to hold up about the same (which is not all that long, unfortunately), so I suggest buying the cheapest you can find. The grabbers with a trigger rather than a squeeze handle seem easiest for little hands to use.

Dig a huge hole (but don't forget to fill it in again before you leave!). My kids love digging, and they think gigantic holes are just about the coolest thing ever. Even more than making sandcastles at the beach, they love digging, and digging, and digging, until they've made a giant hole they can fit inside.

Wiffle ball is a favorite for my boys, as long as it's not too crowded!

If there are six apples and you take away four, how many apples do you have? Four.

The more you take away from me, the bigger I get. What am I? A hole.

What starts with E, ends with E, and has only 1 letter in it? Envelope.

Michael’s father has three sons. Two are named Snap and Crackle. What’s the third son called? Michael

Knock Knock. Who's there? I eat mop. I eat mop who?

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Doris. Doris who? Doris locked. Open up, please!

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Hatch. Hatch who? Bless you!

Knock, knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock, knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock, knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock, knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana?!

Basic OTC medications and first-aid kit, like Tylenol, Advil, Zyrtec, Benadryl, bandaids, Neosporin, hydrogen peroxide.

Laundry basket or backpack, and laundry detergent.

Shower caddy for transporting stuff to and from communal showers.

Towels and bedding, probably for a twin XL, which is the mattress size they use at many colleges. I have seen them stock up on these at Home Goods around the end of summer.

We did a little volunteering as a family when my daughter was younger, but as she's gotten older, it's been really special to be able to volunteer more regularly in support of causes and organizations that we both really care about. It's by far one of my favorite mother daughter activities that we do together.

Some of my favorite things to do with my 11-yr old daughter are: take an evening/sunset walk through the neighborhood, ride our bikes to Starbucks, go look at cats for adoption at Petco, go get pretzels from Auntie Anne's and walk around the mall, go to Sephora, to to Ulta (we like to look at Ulta and Sephora and smell perfumes - we don't always buy anything), go to Disneyland, go to Magic Mountain, do arts & crafts, bake brownies.

I've loved picking a different TV series to watch alongside my daughter over the years. It's a fun and relaxing activity we both enjoy, and also results in plenty of fun conversations when we're not watching it! As she's gotten older, it's been especially cool to start watching shows with her that I've long loved, or to discover new favorite shows to binge watch together.

Exercising is a great way for moms and daughters to spend time together. As she's gotten older, my daughter often joins me when I find time for exercise videos (we love blogilates on YouTube!) or to go on a walk or jog.

A ping pong ball hunt is a fun pool game for kids who like a little competition. Number as many ping pong balls as possible, starting with 1 and going up to as many as you have - 25 to 30 work well. Divide players into two teams, give each a container for collecting the balls, then toss the balls into the pool and have players collect as many of them as they can. Add up the numbers on the balls to see who wins! You can introduce a bunch of variations on this game for fun, like only allowing players to collect a single ball at a time, or assigning teams to collect only certain balls (like odds/evens).

Keepy Uppy is an equally fun game to play in the pool as it is out of the pool! Just keep a beach ball (or two or three) up in the air as long as possible.

Categories - pool style! - is a variation on pool tag, where the player who is "it" stands outside the pool, facing away from it, while all the other players remain inside the pool next to them. "It" chooses a category - colors, animals, states, Harry Potter characters, etc - and all the other players have to pick something from that category, without telling anyone what they pick. "It" starts to call out names/things related to the category, and if a player's selection gets called, they have to try and swim to the other end of the pool before "it" hears them and jumps in to tag them.

Octopus is a variation on swimming pool tag that is especially fun to play with a lot of people. One person starts off as the Octopus, and tries to tag all the other players as they swim across the pool. When a player is tagged, that player and the Octopus have to hold hands, and work together to keep trying to tag other players. Anyone who is tagged joins the Octopus chain, and everyone in the chain has to hold hands in order to tag the other players. If too many players join the chain (making it difficult to swim), you can break up into multiple Octopus chains.

We do BTS shopping at Target. I buy the Gift Cards when they are on sale for 20% off and save my 5% birthday coupon for it!

For basic school supply items that you end up needing to repurchase every year, buy in bulk and keep the extra on hand to draw from in the future. Costco often has great deals on post-its, pens, notebooks, etc during back to school time.

I always have cheese zits for on the go, juice boxes, sliced fruits of their liking and also yogurt packets . Even a favorite cereal of theres put in a zip lock baggie.

Grapes are an easy way to get some fruit in hungry kids. When we keep a bowl of washed grapes in the fridge, my kids are way more likely to reach for them. When they have to do the work of picking and washing them, not so much.

Popcorn. We have a silicone microwave popper that my tween and teen use on their own when they feel like having a snack.

Cheese sticks, Babybel, or any other pre-portioned cheese.

Volunteering as a family. Volunteering in our community was important to my husband and me before we had kids, so we wanted to incorporate into our family life as much as possible. It took a while for us to find local places to volunteer with kids, but once we did, it became a meaningful family tradition. Even during the pandemic, we were able to find ways to volunteer from home, which helped us feel connected to our larger community during an otherwise isolating time. These at-home projects are also great when you have very young kids or it's otherwise difficult to get out to volunteer.

We buy one new Christmas ornament each year, and choose it to remind us of something special from that year. Often it's a vacation, but it can also be a move to a new state, a new pet joining the family, or another important event or milestone.

We do family pizza and movie night every Friday, and it is something that we still look forward to after quite a few years. We all take turns being the one who gets to choose a movie. This mostly eliminates arguments about what we are watching.

Eating dinner together isn't the most glamorous of family traditions, but we prioritize doing it as much as we possibly can! It's a built-in way to hear about everyone's day and connect as a family, even when we are all busy.

Set up a little frisbee golf course in the backyard and use a laundry basket as the target. The player with the fewest tosses to get their frisbee into the basket wins!

We recently discovered creeking from our park center super fun and free lots of activities too. I found it on the events tab on Facebook I’ve never done anything like it before but it was fun for my tot and myself .

The geocaching app is a huge hit with my kids! There is a free option, but the $6.99 option has more caches to find. My kids (7 and 9) have so much fun with this in our neighborhood and also parks and paths nearby!

Nothing like playing with squirt guns on a hot day! In addition to squirting each other, kids can set up target practice with random stacked objects, such a plastic cups.

I remember having a lot of daddy daughter time at our local playground when I was little. It was such a simple thing for my dad to bring me there on the weekends, but it was our tradition and I think that's what has made it so memorable for me. It doesn't have to be expensive or over the top to be special!

If your daughter's school hosts a father daughter dance, don't miss out on it! It's one of the highlights of the whole school year for us, and there's the bonus of having the dads get to know each other better, too.

We had a pretty well-stocked costume bin when my daughter was little, and one of her favorite father daughter activities was dressing up with her dad in crazy getups. She thought it was a riot to see him in her dress-up clothes and accessories.

My husband and daughter get dressed up & go to the restaurant of her choice. They love this together time!

Picking weeds outside, watering flowers/plants/herbs and raking leaves is a chore that my kids find fun. (Added bonus if you buy their own gloves/watering can).

Lots of yard work options for chores! Older kids can mow the lawn, and all ages can help with sweeping, pulling weeds and other gardening tasks.

Dusting is a chore I'll assign to all of my kids, from preschooler to teens. I just adjust who dusts what based on how fragile it is!

Straightening the family's shoe area is a good chore that I'm about to assign to our tween, but any age could do it. Our shoes are on shelves in the bottom of our coat closet, but it becomes a disaster so quickly when the kids just kick them off into a pile and shut the door! Organizing the shoes every day will only take a couple minutes, and will make it so much easier for everyone to find their shoes on the way out the door.

I put together little gifts (think Dollar bin) wrapped up in bags with a time on them. My kids look forward to these gifts and it helps to pass the time on long trips!

During a gas station break, we always let the kids pick out a special snack or two to enjoy in the car. They love getting the freedom to pick whatever they want.

It's always a good idea to keep a spare "barf bag" or two in the car. Make sure you know where they are and can access them quickly. My kids don't get car sick, but we've had the occasional stomach bug pop up while on the road...and the end result is the same! I've seen blue bags specifically for this purpose on Amazon.

Download an audiobook and/or pick a podcast that's appropriate for your kids' ages and would be interesting to the adults, too.

Have your kids look at cook books or online recipes, write grocery lists, go shopping with you, let them pick out any produce item that they want to try. When kids are involved they are more apt to eat!

When it comes to picky eaters I try to veer away from making multiple meals only because I want my children to actually try something before just deciding "they just don't like" something. I have also found different ways to make meals and hide certain ingredients/foods they may not like and it definitely works. There are also times when I decide to "cave in" and just give that specific meal just to assure my picky eater is actually eating. Either way I'm learning to just be patient because children's appetites or what they may like changes as they grow.

One of my kids is vegetarian. We have a meal box subscription (HungryRoot) that has a lot of vegetarian options. I let me child scroll through the list of ingredients and pictures and choose three things they'll eat. When the box comes, we unpack it together and my child decides what order we have those meals. All of the meals are simple to make, so when we find ones we like, we'll often buy the ingredients on our own and they become part of our regular routine. The meal plan allows us to skip boxes, so we only get it when we know we'll have a busy week or are out of ideas.

Try making "build your own" meals. Put out a bunch of components and let each person pick and choose what they want. You're only making one meal, but it's customized for each person. We do build your own salads (greens and veggies, beans, chicken, cheese, croutons) or rice bowls (protein, rice, cheese, salsa, avocado, beans, mango) and these go over really well with my kids and their different food preferences. Picky eaters can enjoy their dinner "deconstructed" if they don't want their food touching.

We have a binder of "greatest hits" recipes that we use almost exclusively for our family dinner rotation. My weekly meal planning involves picking recipes from the binder each weekend to meal plan for the week ahead, and I go to the grocery store once. I just have too many new recipe failures to bother wasting my time with trial and error on our busy weeknights. I'd rather cook something tried and true, and my kids would much rather eat something they already know they love. On the rare occasion that I cook something new and the family loves it, it gets printed out and added to the binder.

My husband and I try to plan 3-4 meals for the coming week before the weekend is out, so we can make a plan for grocery shopping and actually cooking. We often invite the kids to each pick one meal for the week as well - they tend to eat it better when they've been involved in the planning in some way!

When they’re young, I think letting kids play a little bit or walk around before the food arrives helps them sit more calmly in the high chair when it’s time to eat. Of course, feeling comfortable letting them play is a challenge! So even though we don’t typically eat early meals, sometimes going to a restaurant earlier in the evening or lunch time avoids the rush. I think just having a little extra space with fewer people can make the entire experience calmer and totally worth the off hours!

I always try to have something in my bag to entertain the kids quietly when they get bored. The paper kids menus and crayons they hand out at many restaurants often work great for a while, but books, a few bristle blocks, or wax sticks are also nice to have on hand for continued entertainment!

I find that my kids tend to eat more if they control what they order (within reason of course). I have them read through the menu, decide what they're indeed craving, and take part in ordering.

When mine were younger, we would order the kids meals first (usually at the same time as our appetizer). Less time for the hungry kids to wait.