Do You Do Friday Family Nights in Your Home? IF So What Are You Doing Tonight?

I just emailed my husband and asked if he wants to go bowling with the kids. We only go a couple times per year, but I feel like going and doing something. Usually on Fridays, we make a simple dinner, pizza, nachos, hot subs etc and watch a movie or play games. Fridays are for family fun!!!

No we don't, but we tried it a few times. The kids loved it... but my husband's work schedule doesn't permit us to continue doing so on a regular basis.
I always found that making tacos (or a taco bar) is enjoyed by kiddos as well. Or even spaghetti with fresh bread and olive oil/seasoning to dip it in.

We do tend to have a family movie afternoon on Sunday afternoons--complete with fresh popcorn and everyone piled in the bedroom to watch on the bigscreen. :)

A friend of mine does family night each week where one person in the family gets to pick what they have for dinner and what game they play and everyone in the family has to participate. They rotate who's week it is so everyone gets to make a decision. Sometimes if they have the extra money they go out to dinner and some where like the movies or bowling as a family but most of the time they do something at home.

We have a big top deck with a firepit. Every friday we BBQ and eat dinner, make s'mores and listen to music. Mommy and Daddy have a glass of wine and sometimes our girls bring sleeping bags and pillows and fall asleep up there till we carry them in. We just talk and have fun. We almost always have friends over, but last weekend it was just our little family and it was so nice. I love summer!

How about taco night with banana splits for desert with a movie from the REDBOX.

= )

Enjoy your family.

Growing up we had Friday Family Nights... we went to a K-12 private school in the South, so literally the whole world shut down on Fridays (parents routinely left work early) to go to the HS football games. After the game, we went out for pizza- along with several other friends and then back to our house for a sleepover. It was wonderful and some of my best childhood memories are laying on the floor at my parents' house, stuffed with pizza and watching movies with my friends! We literally did this EVERY single Friday night until we were in college- still do when we're all home. It is so worth doing and your children's friends will pick up on it and join in the festivities! My friends (in our 30s) know that if we're all home there will be pizza at the house and stop in!

We do our family night on Saturdays now in my house. We go to Mass at 5:00 and then out for a bite to eat (usually burgers) and then back home or some kind of fun errand. My little guy is a little too young to do a movie, but when we get home we cuddle, read books and watch an episode of Backyardigans.

Well, what do you & your family like to do, and eat? I would start thinking about that & then go from there. It doesn't have to be pizza & a movie. It can be anything that makes your family happy & brings you closer together.

We have Friday Family Nights all of the time. In the cooler/cold months, it usually includes movie or board games and dinner, then popcorn and dessert. If we are not fixing pizza from scratch, we may order pizza instead. One meal that is always a winner in my house also is "BRINNER" - breakfast for dinner. We make creative pancakes together - add chocolate chips, Skiddles, sprinkles, M&Ms - something out of the ordinary. It's Friday, so have fun with it. Let your girls pick out the wacky parts - make the pancakes in funny shapes. It's fun - and it taste good!

I think tacos are the only thing my family could eat every week (or maybe burgers in grill season), but who says that it has to be same every week. It could be take out night, or it could be "make your own" night with a buffet line of mini pizzas and toppings, wraps and fillings, salad fixins, ice cream and toppings... oh boy, I need to go get a snack ;)

We do pizza & a movie on Fridays. If your kids can't handle that, how about something like Tacos, or chicken nuggets or something along those lines? We will eat in the living room & usually watch 2 movies back-to-back.

I started Friday pizza nights years ago when my husband was deployed to give the kids & I something to look forward to after getting through some rough weeks missing Daddy.

We have a ping pong table that we can't leave up all the time since there's no room for it. We even have a chalk board where you put your intitials for the next game. My kids are teenagers so it gets them out of their rooms away from their laptops to hang out together.

We also play loud music (there IS some stress about whose ipod gets the dock) and I'll make chicken wings, pizza, hamburgers, or just fry a bunch of food.

Happy Friday!

:)

We used to do board games once a week when my DD was younger and our lives weren't as hectic, There are a lot of good ones out now that can be played a lot without getting boring. The Settlers of Catan series is excellent in that it rarely plays the same way twice because the board itself if different each time. And, there are games like Scrabble, Operation, Life, etc. Also, there are a lot of the traditional card games that can be played by the family - Rummy doesn't have a lot of rules, Uno is just Crazy 8s, and there are always the standards of Go Fish, Old Maid, Hearts & Spades depending on the age of your children. Dinner on your family night should be something quick and easy to prepare and clean up after and not overly messy as you don't want to leave any marks on the games/cards.

I like having a "carpet picnic" and a movie. When I just can't stand to even smell another pizza, we fix a "snack dinner" and set out a blanket in the family room for our picnic and a movie. My kids love to have cheese sticks, grapes, crackers, travel cups of juice/milk/water, carrot sticks and such so dinner is easy on me and fun for them. They like having a picnic basket of food or even just their lunchboxes with individual meals. Anything to get me a break from the kitchen in this heat!!

We're having spaghetti & meatballs and playing video games. :)

Since I work at home doing home childcare, I actually want to LEAVE my house...LOL! A few months ago we started to consistently do Friday Family Date Night. We go to Panera and to a Movie. Typically its a new release, as we are nerd-fest movie lovers and so many have come out in the last few months! Tonight will be a dillema tho. Hubby and teen daughter want to see Cowboys vs Aliens. I think it looks so dumb. I just can't get past the premise and title, and every week we see a preview for it and they tease me and I make little barfy sounds and its a big joke now! LOL. I may acutally go see a movie alone so they can see this and get it over with! LOL

But we enjoy it and its our time together. We , of course, are flexible if dd makes plans...and I had a fever once...but mostly we just plan for this and it works for us!

Figure out what will work for you guys! Some sort of fun meal? Try some new things? Borrow a fondue pot from someone one week and try that! Play games, watcha flick (get your kids to see all those old movies you watched...depending on their ages...like ET, etc! Play fun music and blast it while you cook or bake. LEt them have cherries in their drinks like Kiddie Cocktails....special things just for this night? Everyone wear their PJs all evening...silly stuff like that!

We used to do stuff like this when my daughter was little. She got to sit in Daddys seat at the table...or wear her jammies to eat dinner on the patio....things that were not quite the norm and considered special. It was fun and shes almost 17 now and remembers that stuff from when she was about 4 or so!

I haven't had time to read through your response but I will - I LOVE this post! It's funny too, because just last night my husband wasn't feeling well so he went to bed at 6pm. So my 2 girls (ages 9 and 7) and I sat down at the table and played Skipbo for over an hour. And one of my thoughts was that we should have game night EVERY Friday night! Just need to add Daddy when he's feeling better. I'll be reading the other comments for some new ideas. Happy family night everyone!

Tonight we are having pizza and making caramel corn. The movie for tonight is Scooby Doo and the Legend of the Lake Monster...with Short Circuit for a back up if the first is too scarey.

However, sometimes we go to chick-fil-a or McDonald's and let them play until they want to go home...hours. My husband and I sit and visit maybe read or play Scrabble.

I will fix a super favorite meal and then we play board games.

we switch it up...sometimes it is a netflix movie other times it is board games, my youngest is not so great with board games but enjoys other group play like play dough or blocks.
We did Pizza last night, so we for sure will not be having it tonight. We may have spaghetti though, that is everyones favorite. We do a breakfast for dinner as a treat every once in a while, kids love it.

Not sure of your children's ages but how about:
Taco bar night
Rent a movie from Redbox
Mini hamburgers
Spaghetti, salad and garlic bread
Grilled chicken tenders
Play a game together. Depening on the ages you can play
charades, cards, tic tac toe, Twister, Candyland, Monopoly, checkers
Make a sensible dinner then have an ice cream sundae bar.

We do dinner and a movie alot....the kids pick a fun dinner and sometimes we just do a selection of finger foods. We have a drive-in theater not too far away that shows double features and we pack a picnic. Tonight though is family night at a local waterpark so thats what we are doing!

we live 1 1/2 hrs from most of our family & 2 1/2hrs from our lake house. Most Friday nights are spent on the road, packing for Sat a.m., or we have a house full of company.

The few "down" weekends (which averages about 1-2 x month).....I hit my PJs as soon as my last daycare family leaves & totally veg on the sofa in btwn loads of laundry. Occasionally, I will spend the weekend scrapbooking, but not often anymore.....way toooo many family events on our schedule! AND my 15yo son splits his Fri/Sat nights btwn our house or his friends' homes.... it's a constant flux - which is cool with me.

As for your dinner ideas: we used to do a Random Sunday Dinner....each week we picked a themed meal (as a family) & tried all kinds of new foods! It was awesome & one day we'll do it again.....

When I Was a kid we often had pancakes for dinner on Fridays. My mom made them in different animal shapes. My hubby can't do pancakes for dinner so we vary different fast food

How about something fun they can help make like personal pizzas, make your own salads, tacos, soup & sandwiches, just appetizers, backwards day where you have dessert first and then dinner or something like that. Still fun stuff and the kids can get involved. Sounds like a fun night! When ours gets older we'll be doing board game night too :)

some order pizza or chinese or have that be their out to eat night. or on the way home from work pick up something like kfc or fazollies. some watch tv together some play games and others just have it be the one night of the week where they have nothing to do like sports or business meetings and are able to be home together. i personally can't wait til mine are old enough to play adult games together seriously. i think basically the dinner is supposed to be easy and fast so if you made something at home maybe it would be something you could just throw in the oven like frozen pizza or stoffers meals or maybe spagetti sense that's quick.

What about 'you pick it' dinner nights (and let each person choose what to have one night a month and then have a movie. My girlfriend does this with her daughter. My hubby gets home right around the time the kids go to bed on Fridays so I either am putting them to bed or I let them stay up so they can see Daddy. Our Fridays are then just hanging out and early to bed since I get up with the kids on Sat and hubby gets up at 4am to go to work.

Wednesday night is our family night...

We make pizza (sometimes we switch it up and do something else) and either play the Wii, board games or watch a movie...we've even played twister a time or two...

Make it a No TV night, and play board games or cards together. Let the kids pick what to have for dinner, this week Johnny picks then next Friday Susie gets to choose and Include the whole family in on the cooking :-)
I cant wait till Mikey is older and we can do this too !!!!!!!

** Oops I'm such an idiot! Lol Just realized you dont have a "Johnny" :-( sorry, so let Jackie pick hahaha

we dont do ours on friday since my husband works evenings but we do sunday evening family nights, which is good because typically the kids need to be home to get ready for school...
we have family dinner, usually since we do ours on sunday my girls & I, typically bake some goods for the week that afternoon so everyone gets their choice of those. & I usually make a large homemade dinner, whatever we're in the mood for.
then we will watch tv or movies or play games on the Wii, or board games in the summer we might go down to the pool. just a relaxing evening at home where eat a good meal & spend time together.