We’re staying home this long weekend. It’s too hot at our usual getaway (our current happy place), and we’ve just been too busy to make other plans. We may head to the beach for a day, or head up into the cooler areas of the mountains for a hike, but mostly we’re just going to stay at home. And it’s going to be awesome.

Here’s what’s on our list of things to do:

• Sleep in.
• Long lazy breakfasts with everyone’s favorite yummy things (we like waffles, with outrageous toppings.)
• Picnic in the backyard. (To do this right you need to go all out – picnic blanket, watermelon, lemonade in glass tumblers, the works. Because it’s your backyard, you can do this. You were never going to lug all that stuff to a park, right? In your backyard you can go full Monet and lounge in style. Consider having one of the kids bust out a canvas and paint the scene. I’m only half-kidding.)
• Invent new varieties of lemonade for that picnic. (I like adding mint; Emilia prefers strawberries.)
• Nap.
• Nap some more. (You have nowhere to be. Naps are best when you have nowhere to be.)
• Water fight (you don’t need water guns for this: just fill a big bucket with water and put it the middle of your battle area. Everybody gets a cup and stations themselves at equal distance from the bucket; on the count of three… rush the bucket and it’s ON. WATER GAMES.)
• NERF Battle (Jasper’s request.)
• Burger Buffet Extravaganza (all the fixings for a burger bar – veggie burgers, beef burgers, toppings, condiments – set up outside on the patio table under fairy lights. Grown-ups can spike their lemonade for this meal.) (Mint Lemonade with good tequila – yum.)

• DIY Sundaes (ice cream bar, basically. This may or may not happen the same evening as the Burger Buffet, or on multiple evenings.)
• Making whipped cream* for the DIY Sundaes and Lazy Breakfast waffles. (I’ve been pushing the art of whipped cream on Emilia as an alternative to slime. Because slime is a pain, and I can eat whipped cream.)
• Movie night! (Obligatory: blankets, jammies and popcorn. Optional: Junior Mints and Twizzlers.) (Those last two aren’t really optional.)
• Backyard camp-out. (Emilia has been lobbying for one of these. I’m tempted, because it’s so much easier than putting up the tent.)
• Just hang out. Seriously. Just lounge and play board games. Read books. Pull the curtains and pretend there’s a storm outside so that you can curl up with an afternoon movie. You don’t have anywhere to be, so enjoy just being where you are. Together.

 

*Super Crazy Easy DIY Whipped Cream

You probably already know this trick, but it was a revelation to me: Get cold heavy cream, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla or another flavoring of your choice. Put it all in a Mason jar and shake hard until it thickens. DONE. (As a slime alternative: play with flavorings and food coloring and colored sugar to make pink coconut whip, sparkly purple whip, yellow banana whip, rainbow whip, etc, etc.)

And! Emilia took the DIY whipped cream a step (well, a couple of steps) further to make what she calls Strawberry Cream Cookiesicles:

What she did: crush some Milano cookies and mix with a little butter to form a crust and blended some strawberries. Then she put the crust at the bottom of a cupcake cup, layered on the whipped cream, then the strawberries and froze the whole thing. The result was CRAZY YUM.

Get your kids making these.

This post is part of The Whole Family Happiness Project, in partnership with Social Currents and the Low Carbon Economy Narrative Initiative. The Whole Family Happiness Project poses the question, “What is the connection between our individual purpose, our family happiness, and the happiness of the world around us?”

To learn more or get involved, visit Whole Family Happiness on Facebook. #wholefamilyhappiness

Save