10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy June! I’m so sorry to have been quiet for so long. Some people have said they miss these posts so I’m going to try to start them up again on Mondays the way I used to.

So without further ado, here are a few ways to make some magic this week!

1. Get glow-in-the-dark paint and help the kids write secret messages, hand prints & pictures on the ceiling. Better yet, press their feet in it and hold them upside down to make little footprints going across it. 🙂
2. During the night, decorate the living room with streamers and a big sign that says “Happy ________ Day!” (marmot day, random day, I love you day, blueberry day…)  Make up traditions for the day together– you must wear purple, it’s traditional to eat ice cream for breakfast, whatever.
3. Teach the kids to whistle with blades of grass and stage your own backyard grass concert together.
4. Make squirt gun art.  Give the kids each a piece of poster board and some washable markers and ask them to use lots of colors and make a design all over the poster board.  They can do lines, colored circles, patterns, whatever.  The more color the better!  Hang them on the clothes line or prop them up in the back yard and give each child a squirt gun filled with water.  Have them squirt their pictures to make the ink run and make new designs, colors and patterns.
5. Let the kids camp out in the back yard or living room.  Better yet, join them.  Don’t forget the campfire songs!
6. Fade some clothes.  Let each child pick a dark or bright colored T-shirt and gather an assortment or rocks or other small, heavy shapes.  Have the kids arrange their shapes on the T-shirts in a sunny place where they can remain undisturbed for a few days.  Have them check their shirts every few days until they have faded enough to make the pattern really visible. 
7. Put glow-in-the-dark bracelets in balloons and blow them up, then play volleyball with them in the dark.
8. Go someplace public together and make up new identities. Decide on names and talk about your make belief life. We used to have so much fun doing this in restaurants! The more outlandish the talk, the better.
9. Have a kiddie parade.  Grab some friends or neighbors, dress everybody up and give each child a baton, drum, tambourine or flag.  March down the sidewalk or through a park.  If you like, pull a wagon with extra props and invite other kids to join in as you go.
10. Throw a theme potluck– everyone must bring a dish that starts with A, has exactly 3 ingredients or is a certain color, for example.  If you don’t want to have to clean the house, stage it at a park.

And with that, I’m off again. Hopefully I’ll be gone much less time this time!

Have a magical week!