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.

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!

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

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 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.

Dried cereal. You can put your families' favorite in baggies, or get the individually-sized snack cups.

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.

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?!

Surge protector

Shower shoes, for sure. I just learned they make some with holes now to dry more quickly.

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

Laundry basket or backpack, and laundry detergent.

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.

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.

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.

My daughter and I are both avid readers, and since she was very young, one of our favorite things to do was to head to a nearby bookstore, spend a long time browsing the books, then buying a special one to read together at the bookstore cafe. This is a mother daughter tradition that ages well, too - only now, we each read our own book!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Breakfast in bed on your birthday is a tradition from my own childhood that I have loved carrying over to our family. Every birthday, the birthday kid/teen/mom/dad gets woken up by the whole family singing "Happy Birthday” and bringing in a tray of their favorite breakfast, along with their birthday gifts. Then we all crowd onto the bed to eat and open gifts. It is the best way to start a special day!

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!

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!

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 .

Collect bugs! Kids can peek under rocks to see what creepy crawlers they can find, and add them to a bug collector to observe for a little while before setting them free.

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.

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.

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).

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!

Have a designated trash bag. It's better to plan ahead for this than to have to frantically search for one when your kid is trying to hand you something disgusting.

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

I like to spread out the distribution of any new activities or road trip toys over the course of the trip, and find that my kids enjoy them longer this way. If they start the trip with unlimited access to all of the new stuff, they blow through it pretty quickly and there's not as much to look forward to.

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.

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.

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 🙌🏻

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!

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.

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.