I love birthdays but to be totally honest, my favourite birthday is my own! It is the one day a year I take completely off and just indulge, relax and take it easy.

You can’t really take time off from being a mom, so while I was working outside the home, I always made sure I had my birthday off. Then when I had kids, I vowed that they would never go to school on their birthday and that we would spend the day together - doing whatever they wanted. Tomorrow is my son’s 6th birthday and I am so excited to start this tradition with him. I am going to make his cake with him, make some cupcakes to take to his class for the next day, make his favourite breakfast, lunch and dinner, riding his bike… I can’t wait!

This post is not to convince you to do the same thing with your kids, but to emphasize the importance of neat traditions with your family. I can’t think of any traditions that don’t require forethought and planning. So think of your own traditions that you want to do with your own family - not just Christmas or Valentines, but random days in the year to make your loved ones feel special (Ok, maybe I am trying to convince you to have the same birthday-day-off with your kids…) Take the day off if you can, schedule it in, and make your little ones feel like they are your number one for the day. What better gift can you give them than that!

Remember…like everything, unless you plan for it - it will never happen. Spend a couple minutes thinking about what you want to do, when and how and you will LOVE the reward of a closer family. HAVE FUN!!

Ah yes, the Long Weekend - such a glorious time. Our next one is well over 6 weeks away and believe it or not, now is the time to think about it! What do YOU want to do?

So often around our house we spend our first long weekend of the summer doing some sort of project around the house, NO MORE! I want to encourage all of our readers to put the organizing, house renos, garden planting and garage cleaning off for this weekend and plan something fun to do with your family. Does this mean a camping trip? A day at the beach? A trip to the bowling alley? A time to visit your family and friends?

I recommend finding some local venue to explore. Discover a new place close to your home that you have always wanted to see - but have never taken the time to venture out to. You’ll save on gas, and actually do what you want.

On this Fun Friday assignment - research some venue ideas and find your top 3 options to present to your family. Once you decide together where you want to go and what you want to do, think about as many details of the day as you can and plan for it. It will be a fun diversion and something to really look forward to in the coming weeks once you have all the plans in place. What a great way to start your summer! In our comments, feel free to leave a note on what you think you may do! I can’t wait to hear of all your exciting plans!!