Precious Moments is sad to announce that we will will be closing down Precious Moms on October 30th. Precious Moms was a wonderful outlet for news and information of dedicated moms and the decision to close the site was not an easy one. If there is any information or content you wish to save, please copy and save the information to your computer by October 30th. We appreciate your past support and input on the site.

 "Edmonds' Resort"
Every year since 1984 we have had an "Edmonds' Resort."  Originally my children and nieces and nephews spent the night in a tent and then the next day the adults came back and ate lunch. As the children have gotten older, we no longer have an overnight event, but now we have grandchildren and great-nephews, so we still have the games and the food!!  Each year we have a different theme...one year it was Hawaiian, one year it was Western, one year it was "All American" and we try to have games that fit the theme.  The children also get to go on a scavenger hunt in the yard and the woods following clues that will lead them to their special gifts.  The adults enjoy the day as much as the children.
- Vickie Edmonds

"Four Wheeling"
We like to head up to the Colorado Rocky mountains and enjoy all the 4x4 jeep trails.  Hang on tight and do some rugged four-wheeling over rocks, through water/mud holes, and on some very uneven terrain. The sights are awesome and the wildlife is spectacular!  We can usually see deer, sometimes moose and on rare occasions a bear. The birds are always chirping and fun to watch through the sunlight filtering in amongst the tall pine trees. Then if that is not enough, we can stop at the lake and unload the canoe and paddle around the lake and up to the inlet. There you can enjoy watching beavers making their dams, deer resting on the banks and all the ducks who swim near you as you go by. Whatever your pleasure, you can do it, and the time just flies by. The return trips just bring another fun experience your way!
- Marsha Buettenback 

"Flea Market"
Our favorite summer fun takes place when school is out and Grandpa is babysitting the grandkids. When Hannah (now 12) and Hunter (now 9) come to the house around 6am on Monday morning, we are always up and ready to go 25 miles up the road to the flea market and cattle sale at Wilkesboro, NC. We always stop at a little restaurant, "Harold's," for our pancakes and bacon, then on to the flea market. Hunter has to dig through all the boxes looking for matchbox cars while Grandpa is looking for a good buy on a shotgun or rifle. And guess what Hannah and Grandma are looking for?  You guessed it, Precious Moments figurines!  We always have a great time!
- Sheila Goodwin

"Macaroni Angel Time" 
I love to share the time with little ones, especially when we are stuck inside due to the weather. The kids would yell, mom it's, "macaroni angel time". You see, we keep on hand rigatoni, elmers glues, round 1/2inch wooden balls, and jumbo elbow macaroni and silver/white pipe cleaners. Together with our markers in hand, we put our favorite angel face on the wooden balls, then we paint the macaroni, some like all white and yet others show their artistic sides. We always seem to agree on white wings (the jumbo bowtie macaroni). Now we glue the wings on back of the rigatoni and the head on top, add halo's by using the pipe cleaners bent just right, and here you go, you've  made yourself an angel. They love to share their angels when visitors come by, and also love to make sure their grandma has one at her bedside. They are something simple but meaningful to make in children's bible school too.
This gives us the time to talk about Jesus, and Heaven and to pray. Little ones are like a sponge and they take it all in. There's no mistakes made when you've got angels on the table.
- Bonnie Conley

“Family Handprint”
Our family fun time can be very limited, because my husband's work shift is in the middle of the day ( 3-11 ). The only time that he sees our two children, Anthony and Aceilia, is in the morning before they go to school, and on the two days off a week that he has. To make sure that our time together is the best it can be, we take plenty of pictures, and videos of every outing that we share, and even day to day activities. You would be surprised to find that even what may seem mundane now will be looked upon fondly years from now when you watch a video and realize how much your family has grown. We love crafts, because they are keepsakes that we can keep forever, and making things together that are meaningful remind us of how important we all are to each other. Our favorite craft recently was a handprint rainbow in which every member of the household used their handprints dipped in paint to make each color of the rainbow accordingly. We used three large posterboards taped together on the back to accommodate for space! It was such a fun project, and watching the kids laugh and feel silly for having such messy hands will always be a great memory for us. We took down some of the frames from a larger wall in the house, and hung the rainbow when it dried. In the autumn we will take it down and store it for the winter, but come every spring, it will be hung again for all to enjoy. I hope you can enjoy this project just as much! Just don't forget to lay down plenty of old newspaper!
- Elizabeth Morin 

"Group Video Games"
My family plays a video game that you do with your feet (like dance revalation). We laugh and yell and have a good time. And we are getting some exercise too.
-Mylina French

"The  Beach"
Well the first one for us is going every Sunday to the beach, from sunup to sundown.  We swim, play on the sand, make sand castles, have sand ball fights, take long walks on the shore, lay down and rest a bit on the sand, write messages on the shore and watch which one is erased first, make volcanoes and anything that can be created with sand...We like to see how, as the hours go by, the seashore gets smaller and smaller, and then we have to run to get back some toy that we left behind... At the end we all sit together and watch how the sun goes down the horizon and all those beautiful colors appear. We sit still till we can't see the sun anymore, we grab all our things and start to make plans for next Sunday.

Family Night
My family and I have our regular family nights.  We spend Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 8-9pm either playing Nintendo Wii as a family,  read a chapter from  a book, currently The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, or practicing our Sign Language.  My kids look forward to those nights and are always wanting to add another night.  On Saturdays, depending on the weather, we go out as a family to lunch or dinner and try to find something fun to do, be it a movie, rollerskating, or just going to the park.
-Jennifer Zimmer

 Indoor Fun
Some ideas for indoor fun we enjoy are:

• reading books to our child
• playing board games
• crafts of any kind
• watching a fun movie
• lots of imaginative play with toys & dress up
• playing "baseball" or "soccer" with a balloon
• allowing "free play" by being an audience for "home made" dramas. (such as a performance of the nativity, since our child couldn't be in a church performance at our church.)
  

Building Bicycles for Charity
We spend a lot of time indoors playing board games, but in December, we went down and volunteered for an organization called "Elves and More."  My husband, myself and our two boys, 8 and 6 years old, went down and spent about 5 hours building bicycles for children who most likely would not have had a single present, if it wasn't for Elves and More.  We had the best time building these bicycles.  We lost track, but we think we built about 25 bikes during that time and have already made plans to go back next year for many more days.  The boys would never have comprehended how many children need presents from outside sources, but them being able to see all those bikes lined up in rows certainly impacted them in a way I hadn't anticipated.
-  Mary Ramsower

Crafts
Our favorite family thing to do is arts/crafts, painting wood shaped animals, and making magnets,and  just making everything fun!
- Rebecca Grove

Hide the Button
I come from a family of 10, so there wasn't a lot of money for us to have the toys that are available today. So we would play Hide-The -Button. Whomever got close to where it was hidden the person who hide it would let them know by saying they were hot, warm or cold. Until eventually finding the button. The winner would get a special snack made up of raisins, coconut, nuts or whatever was available. I have taught my 2 girls this game and now am teaching my Grandaughter. They also think it is fun. Give it a try!
- Marilyn Nelson

Baking Cookies with Love
My daughters and I have a great time making cookies together.
Spritz butter cookies are the best.  I have a super shooter so we can make a variety of shapes. Each girl gets to choose their favorite shapes and decorate the cookies.   After its baked we share the cookies with family and friends. 
I especially love to make red sprinkled hearts.  After my hearts are made, I give at least one to each of my girls and tell them how much I love them and how special they are to me.
Hugs all around!
- Mei

 Indoor Campout
Have an indoor camp-out including all the great outdoors indoors! Popcorn, smores--just made in the microwave instead of the fire--unless you have a fire place! We even clear the living room and put up the tent --no TV !! Just camp-side stories (by candlelite or flashlite) You can go all out or just do a little let your kids help decide or even surprize them!! When even sometimes let them invite a friend to share in the fun!!
-  Kimberly

Rustic Cabin Vacation
Years ago my husband took me on a dogsleding trip.  The "bug" bite us hard and now we own 10 Alaskan Huskies and Mush recreationally.  Our children went on their first trip with us when they were in 3rd and 1st grade.  Our kids are now teenagers and enjoy going up to the U.P. to relax in a 16' x 24' log cabin with no electricity or running water.  We enjoy just relaxing and getting back to just "us".  It has brought us closer as a family and our kids friends want to go with us because, "it sounds like so much fun".  We enjoy being out in God's country looking at His beauty!  We would not change a thing about it!!
- Lynn Walford

Indoor Camping
Whatever the weather outside, our family has always enjoyed camping out inside. That's right! We light the fireplace, pull out our sleeping bags and camp out right in the family room. The kids just love it. Sometimes we take bedsheets and stretch them across tables and chairs to resemble an outdoor tent. We tell stories and play games, but most of all we just laugh and have fun all night long.
- Susan Anders

Jingle Bell Toy
For baby or Toddler.  You will need the following:
1 Empty Pringles can with top, clean and dry
1 large or Jumbo Jingle Bell
1 piece colored contact paper
1 piece clear contact paper
Stickers of different shapes and sizes
Tape
Cover Pringles can with colored contact paper.  Arrange the different stickers on the can. Cover with Clear Contact paper so stickers can not be peeled off.  Place Jingle bell inside can and tape the lid shut. 
- Jennifer Zimmer

Putting on a "Music" Show
I have a 15 yr.olddaughter, a 5 yr. old daghter & a 15 month old son at home. My 5 yr old loves to play dress up & sing little songs to us while my little boy plays his drum set( his older brother showed him how). Another thing we like to do is my oldest daughter will help the little ones build a tent w/blankets & chairs then we play.
- Patricia Richardson

Bird Treat
This is similar to the Bird Treat.  Instead of using bread you can use a pinecone.  Spread peanut butter on pine cone, put bird seed in a brown sack.  Tie a piece of string or yarn around the pine cone, put inside brown sack with string hanging out the top of the bag and shake.  Then hang up for the birds to enjoy.
- Jennifer Zimmer 

A Time Warp
Sometimes we will invite the rest of the family over on a Saturday and pretend that it’s 20 or 30 years ago, when there was no cable TV, no Internet, no cellular phones, no mp3's, iPods, CD's etc... No microwave ovens or TV dinners, so we have to do everything like on those days... We write letters to our friends and go to the mailbox and send them. We cook everything from scratch, even the cookies and cakes.  When night gets on, finally we will watch a movie, if we are lucky, from one of the local channels, and we make popcorn from scratch using oil and a pot. We get very tired on this day, but I will be happy that for one day I had them all together  sharing their time with the family with no outside or modern intruders.
-Giovanna 

“The Zoo”
My husband, son,and myself enjoy going to the Cape May Zoo in New Jersey and then going to a restaurant called The Lobster House where you dine out on the dock and watch the fishing boats come in with their catch.
-Louise Bateman

Please submit your Family Fun ideas  to share them with other Precious Moms.