5 Boys, 3 Pizzas, 2 Girls, and a Gallon of Ice Cream
I blogged a few weeks ago about our Date Night Co-op group. This weekend was mine and Chris’s first time to host all the kiddos at our house. I’m still recovering. I counted heads so many times that night that I’m still counting to seven in my sleep!
We had five boys and two girls, with ages ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade. It was organized chaos in our house from 6:00-10:00!
When the kids first got there, we planned to have everyone swim, but only a few of them wanted to get in the pool. The rest wanted to play up in the kids rooms. So, we split up and Chris stayed with the inside crew while I stayed with the outside one.
We ordered pizza at 6:30 and it arrived right on time at 7:30. We were hoping feeding them a little later would keep them busy throughout the night. We ate until about 8:00.
At 8:00, we fed them a gallon of ice cream, complete with all the toppings and fixin’s they could handle. Did you know that sprinkles could act as the base for a tiny scoop of ice cream? No? Well, they can, apparently. We went through two cans of sprinkles!
After ice cream, we got pillows and blankets from the kids rooms and headed downstairs to the family room for a movie. We rented “Open Season 2” and that seemed to please just about everyone. They huddled together on the couch and sat for almost the entire movie! We discovered the key to keeping a group of kids happy is to just keep feeding them, so we popped popcorn for the movie and everybody was good to go!
Chris and I were never so thankful for our family room! While they watched the movie downstairs, we watched football upstairs. Everybody wins!
Parents came to pick the kids up around 10:00, and by that time, everyone was tired and ready to head home.
So far, Chris and I have had two Saturday date nights. But, both of them were spent with family members because we had things going on. We are looking forward to October when we finally do get an actual date night with just the two of us. For now, we are trying to think of some things to do next Saturday night because we have the kid crew again (somehow in the schedule, we ended up with back-to-back hosting nights).
Any ideas are welcome!
16 Comments
Samantha Lockhart
Do a Disney theme night with themed dinner, themed activities, and have them dress up. Or have them each to bring a toy to share and show each other. Good luck!
Emma
If you start to make a big batch of pizza dough in the afternoon it would be ready for the kids to have for dinner. They can roll out and choose their own toppings from whichever ingredients you care to lay out. Small pizzas will hopefully all fit in one batch (on multiple shelves) in the oven, and second helpings will help fill out time, or you can invite the kids to prepare and cook in shifts.
My family used to do this every Saturday night when I was young and I loved it.
Corn, pineapple, cheese and sauce was my favorite topping, verrrrrrry different to how I like my pizzas now.
Amy
I love this so much! What about a bunch of Minute to Win It games? Or a make your own pizza party? We love using the Naan bread that Costco carries for crust! Or decorating pumpkins? I need to get something similar organized with a group of friends!
Nicole
Yes! Minute to Win It games are the best! Also, download HeadsUp on your phone if you haven’t already! My kids are always in a fit of giggles with that game!
Deanna Gemmer
Our favorite activity to do with a large group of kids: Glow in the Dark hide-and-seek!
1. Buy a bunch of glow sticks.
2. When it gets dark, turn off the lights.
3. Each child takes a turn going into a room (their choice) and hiding the glow sticks while everyone (not so patiently) waits.
4. Go a hunting. (To make things fair we have either divided everyone up into color, or given an amount of glow sticks each kid is allowed to find.)
5. Choose someone else to hide and play again.
This keeps kids entertained for hours!
If it doesn’t get dark enough, you can always do stuffed animal hide-and-seek with roughly the same rules.
Hope that helps!
Jennifer H
Take them for a walk to burn some energy? My son is almost 4 and we already have the same thing…friends come over and we think everyone will swim but they really just want to get out alllll the toys.
Casey
Outdoor games – hide n seek, freeze tag, anything that involves lots of energy!
Nicole
Outdoor walk/scavenger hunt? You could divide into two teams with two different lists and compete.
Erin
I’m in the market for a bunk bed like the one you have for Bean! Would you be willing to share info about brand/model? Thanks!
Conny
I second the pizza party idea 🙂 Or any kind of create-your-own-food party, really. A taco bar maybe? I’d assume that dinner will take longer, which leaves less time where you need to keep counting to seven.
Also, next time ask the kids what they usually do at all the other parents’ houses?
Good luck!
Erin
So it’s October- maybe something Halloween themed? Easy Halloween craft, print some Halloween word searches; buy some googly eyes and paper bags and make monster puppets- then the kids can come up with their own puppet show. Or just get Monsters Inc./University and have another movie night!
I have a question- how many couples are in your date night co-op? I’m interested in starting one and wanted to know how big yours is. Thanks!
Mel
I’ve been missing reading your posts. I hope all is well and that life just got too busy to blog for awhile. I hope you will be back!
kim
where are you?
Ellie
Yes, please at least drop in to let us know you’re okay (or not). Your imaginary friends worry 🙂
Jen
Just happened to check back at our site and am so glad to see that you’ve returned to blogging! I subscribed way back before Bean was born and have missed your witty commentary. I’m sure you’ve just gotten busy with life again- looking forward to reading all your half-assed commentary. 😉
Shanna
Your imaginary friends are missing you. I hope you come back soon and everything is okay.