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.)

Wednesday Addams. Wear a black dress/skirt with a white collared shirt. If you can, put on a black long sleeve shirt over the collared shirt, and add white knee socks, black shoes, dark makeup, and braid your hair for the finishing touch!

A black cat is pretty easy to throw together using stuff you already have at home. Just wear all black, and draw whiskers and a nose on your face with eye liner. Add kitty ears using black triangles cut out of construction paper (tape them on a headband or pin them on with bobby pins), and if possible, find something to use as a tail, like a black belt, tie or sash.

How were you kind to someone today?

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

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?

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

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.

Trail mix or mixed nuts are a great, protein-filled snack to keep hunger at bay, and easy to pack and eat in the car.

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.

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.

Spike ball is a fun outdoor game that transports easily and is perfect for the beach. My teens especially enjoy it, but all of us have fun playing together.

My boys love digging in the sand, using toy trucks, shovels, and sand toys of any kind.

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?!

Hangers

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.

Surge protector

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.

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.

Baking together! My daughter has been my most consistent baking partner over the years, and I can always count on her to join me in baking a batch of cookies or other sweet treat. It's a fun add on to other mother daughter activities, too, like watching a show or movie together.

Marco Polo is always the first game I think of to play at the pool! Whoever is "it" closes their eyes and wanders around the pool trying to tag the other players. Anytime the person who is "it" says "Marco?" the other players have to respond "Polo!"

Air charades is popular with my kids, especially when they're playing with younger kids and everyone has a different swimming ability. It's a spin on traditional charades, with players acting out an animal, dance move, pose or other easy clue for other players to guess. The challenge? You have to act out your entire clue in the second or two you are in the air as you jump into the pool!

Treasure hunt is a simple yet always fun swimming pool game. Just throw a handful of coins (or other small sinkable objects) into the pool and have the kids dive to get them. Let them keep the coins as a prize or gather them all to throw in again.

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.

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.

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.

Roasted seaweed snacks are a favorite for my kids right now. We like the ones from Trader Joe's because the individual packages are a little smaller and sized right for a 1-person snack.

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.

We have a red "You are special today" plate that we bring out whenever we have something to celebrate, and the special person gets to use it. I love using it not only for birthdays, but also to recognize smaller celebrations: moving up a level on the swim team, getting a part in the school play, losing a tooth, etc.

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.

We measure each kid's height on their birthday. Instead of marking directly on the wall, we have a wooden ruler growth chart that we've hung up and can take with us when we move.

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!

Water painting the driveway or patio is a great use for old paint brushes that are past their prime. Just give the kids a small bucket of water and some paint brushes.

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.

Read-aloud books at bedtime has been a dad & daughter tradition in our house for years, and it's easy to make time for father daughter activities like this when you build them into your daily routine.

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).

For very little, I have them sort laundry into piles for who it belongs to. The next ones are folding washcloths and carrying things to/from the dinner table. Watering plants is also good for little ones.

Clearing the dishes after a meal, loading and unloading the dishwasher, and making sure that the dogs have their food and water.

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.

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!

My kids love trays that go over their car seats. You can find at Michaels or Amazon. Great for meals, coloring, legos, etc.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I don’t have the time or energy to make extra meals so if they don’t like what I make, my kids have a choice to have peanut butter on bread (PB is a complete protein) so at least it’s something! They are asked to sit at the table with the meal I’ve prepped. Sometimes, their curiosity gets to them and they end up trying (and liking) what I’ve made 🙌🏻

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.