It’s almost February which means my next favorite holiday will arrive soon after…Valentine’s Day! I’ve said it for years….I love LOVE! I love celebrating those that I love and mean so much to me. Josh and I are really good about going out on dates regularly, meeting for lunch, and taking vacations alone (in between family vacations with our children). But on Valentine’s Day, we make sure to spend it with our children and celebrate as a family. So many parents I’ve talked to say that it sounds like a fun idea but are not sure how to make it a fun family tradition. Well, today I’m solving that problem and bringing together some of my favorite Interior & Lifestyle Bloggers, that also happen to be some of the sweetest and most talented mothers, to share with you 11 Kids Valentine’s Party Ideas to do at home. What a FUN tour, right?! Make sure to get your fingers ready to tap and pin each of these posts to Pinterest.

Welcome to my friends who regularly visit AND big welcome to those of you visiting for the first time and are coming from Erin at Sunny Side Up. Didn’t you just love Erin’s ideas? She is darling and always so creative and talented. I love the warmth and love that oozes out of each blog post of hers.

Today I’m sharing a fun idea we had to go a little retro and have a “Soda Shoppe Valentine’s Family Night”. I had something completely different to share with all of you and THEN my son, Beckham, said something about Mommy growing up in the old-fashioned days and wondered if we had colored TV’s. You should have seen the look on my face! I was born in the late 70’s so….yes, we had colored television. I told him that he was referring to the 50’s and since he clearly didn’t know much about the 50’s, one of my favorite eras ever, it was a no-brainer what this Valentine family night’s theme needed to be. You bet your bottom dollar that I turned on Grease and played the soundtrack as quickly as I could. It was swell! ;-p

I wanted to use everything we had and not spend much. I only purchased a few little fun things. We had poodle skirts (I’ve got them ready to go at all times ha ha), we had a vintage tea cart and soda glasses, and we had some vinyl records from another project I did. So we just needed food and music and games and we were set! And instead of using our Dining Room, I decided to keep it quaint and stay in our kitchen nook, on our little round white table. It seemed more fitting somehow.

Oh, I should point out that even though all 4 of us were present, my husband passed on the photo ops for this party and stayed with me behind the camera and, while I had my poodle skirt on, I opted out of being photographed because I’ve got a horrible cold and it shows. You’d thank me, if you could only see me ha!

I grabbed some old vinyl records that I’d purchased at The Salvation Army a while ago for $1 each and used them as chargers. I’ve had red and heart plates that I’ve collected over the years and heart napkins as well. I kept this party simple and ran to Whataburger because I thought that the whataburger menu was better than most of the other fast food places around (it’s a Texas favorite but you can also choose In-N-Out). I grabbed some burgers and fries, just the way we like ’em.

I used a small cake stand from the Target Dollar Spot for the middle of my table to act as a pedestal for my retro diner menu and salt & pepper shakers.

I’m sharing this FREE PRINTABLE I created on Photoshop for this retro diner menu with you (for personal use only, copyright laws apply). I found the sign for less than $2 at IKEA and they always carry them.

One of the things I had to order (because they added so much and were just sooooo cute) were these Classic Pink Cadillac Party Food Boxes and placed a box of chocolates in them for each member of our family. You could also add cookies or popcorn or candy, etc. They are so fun, aren’t they?! Included is the cute checkered tissue paper.

No 50’s diner would be complete without Coca Cola bottles and milkshakes. While I had intended to make strawberry milkshakes, we had some strawberry Fanta soda and vanilla ice cream so I just made these yummy Strawberry Soda Floats. Easy peasy and sooooo yummy!

As far as milkshakes go, I grabbed some yummy cupcakes from my grocery bakery and added chocolate syrup, maraschino cherries, and cut off part of a red-striped paper straw to look like a milkshake. Milkshake cupcakes….that’s what we’re calling them and they were terrific.

This vintage tea cart has made an appearance over and over in our family parties and we use it often to entertain or to hold our hot cocoa bar (search hot cocoa bar or tea cart on my blog to see all the ways I’ve used it).

Iam so glad I had it for my Soda Shoppe Valentine’s Family Night. After dinner, we grabbed those chocolate graham crackers off the bottom shelf of the cart and all the fun candies and we made…..

….LOVE SHACKS!! (cue music) Oh, and of course our “jukebox” (a.k.a. Alexa, our Amazon Echo) was playing all of our my favorite 50’s music that I created on a playlist. Mixing a little water with powdered sugar until it’s really thick makes the perfect “cement” to put together your Love Shack.

While Brooklyn was trying for a more traditional look, Beckham had had enough and went for a more adobe-looking Love Shack….like something we’ve driven past on our drives through New Mexico. Ha! Let’s face it…all they care about is finishing it so that they can pick off the candy or eat the leftover candy. But it was so fun.

While the game Twister may have not been invented until the 60’s, it was a retro game that I know my kids love and laugh hysterically over, as they try to cheat and knock over the other person. We had to bring it out. Please tell me if this sounds familiar!

Of course, NO party is a successful party in The Adams’ Home without a dance party. The sun was setting too so it was the perfect time for a sock hop!

Aaaaaaand….they are gonna kill me one day for sharing this, I’m sure, but I can’t help myself.

Our playlist for the night included the soundtrack from Grease and also many songs from this list I found online. Oh! And “Love Shack” of course! These 50’s tunes are PERFECT for a retro Valentine’s Party!

Here are the items or similar items used that I’ve linked below for your shopping convenience and to help re-create this Soda Shoppe Valentine’s Family Night.

Thanks so much for joining me today! I would love it if you subscribed at the top of the page in order to receive my weekly emails of all my latest posts. You can also follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to see what I’m up to in creating a home and lifestyle of inspiration! Hope to see you soon!

NEXT PARTY —> Head on over to see what my amazing friend Annie at Zevy Joy has in store for you! Every post of hers just melts my heart and I always look forward to the next!

Make sure not to miss a single party! Here are all of the hosts below:

Summer Adams (me) | Zevy Joy | A Thoughtful Place
Kindred Vintage Co. | Eleven Gables | Pink Peppermint Design | Ella Claire
House Of Five | Elliven Studio | Craftberry Bush | Sunny Side Up

Wishing you the Happiest Valentine’s Day, celebrated with the one(s) you love most!

xoxo,

The post Soda Shoppe Valentine’s Family Night appeared first on Summer Adams.

My friend, Sheana @smalltowngirllife, and I came up with a hashtag challenge on Instagram called #TheBucketListTag where we share our monthly bucket lists at the beginning of every month and encourage others to do the same.  We share our favorite(s) on the the 15th of each month. (Find me on Instagram @sheleavesalittlesparkle or click my social media button on the side bar.)

I like to sit with my family and not only create a fun piece of chalk art to be displayed in our home, but as something that lists places we want to go, things we want to do or make, foods we want to eat, events that are coming up…..just a fun way to look forward to the month or even season.  This is our bucket list above for the month of November.  I made one for the summer since we were gone a lot, versus a monthly bucket list.
Our October Bucket List was so fun:
And we loved this creative way that our favorite IG friend shared her bucket list:
So get creative and sit down with your family (or just yourself) and create your Bucket List for this month!  Such a great way to set goals and plan fun activities!

xoxo, Summer

The post November Bucket List appeared first on Summer Adams.

Josh sent me some pics tonight of his date tonight with Brooklyn. After he rang the doorbell with flowers (she was grinning ear to ear), he opened the door for her and off the went. They went to Sugar Factory (her fave Vegas place) for dinner and dessert. Then went to the new Gameworks to play on some fun virtual games and finally off shopping to let her pick out something special. So fun to hear them come home and tell us all about their night!!  Mom of girls, encourage your hubbies to get out there and spend some one-on-one time with their daughters.  I promise, they will develop stronger relationships and create the sweetest memories!   (Moms:  Check out our post HERE about Mommy-Son dates)

Need a few ideas and a little inspiration?  Here they are:

Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt
Lunch or Dinner at restaurant of child’s choice
Bicycling and picnic
Roller skating or Ice skating
Visit a pet store (Watch out! You might bring one home)
Take a dancing class together so she learns to dance
Sporting event of child’s choice
Zoo or Aquarium
Volunteer together or make a list of kind deeds you could do for others
Go shopping to child’s favorite store
Christmas Shopping for friends and loved ones
Game Arcade or Entertainment Center
Carnival or Circus if they’re in town
Concert or Performance (movies are fun too but then you don’t get to talk and interact as much so make this your back-up plan if other plans fall through)
Picnic at the park
Mini golf or go golfing at a course, if your child enjoys that or would like to try (my kids love this one BUT don’t forget it’s not about your swing, dads…it’s about the interaction)
Scavenger Hunt
Hiking
The beach or a pier if you live close
Amusement park (again, if you live close to one)

The most important thing is just to have fun, interact and talk.  Get your kids to talk!  If this intimidate you, well then…make a list of fun questions to ask during your time out together! Good luck!

The post Daddy/Daughter Date Night appeared first on Summer Adams.

Now that school has started again, as well as dance and sports (and homework…ugh), we figured it was time to schedule some one on one time with our kiddos.  I got to have a date night with this handsome young man!! I’ve been looking forward to this all week and even bought this shirt just for our date and told him he needed to wear his Darth Vader shirt also (I found mine at Walmart in the mens section for less than $10). He SCREAMED with excitement when I came out to get him! He was sooo surprised!  And I actually thought that it looked very chic, after I accessorized it!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Café Zupas (his fave) and then went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay.  We LOVED this place!!!! So many cool fish, sharks and other sea life to see! Great discussions with this kid….Been laughing so hard! BEST.DATE.EVER. with this boy!  Especially since he wanted to hold hands with me and opened every door!

(Moms…you can do this with your daughters too, for one-on-one time and see my post HERE where we also shared the Daddy-Daughter date that we posted as well.)

Need a few ideas and a little inspiration? Here they are:

Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt
Lunch or Dinner at restaurant of child’s choice
Bicycling and picnic
Roller skating or Ice skating
Visit a pet store (Watch out! You might bring one home)
Take a dancing class together so she learns to dance
Sporting event of child’s choice
Zoo or Aquarium
Volunteer together or make a list of kind deeds you could do for others
Go shopping to child’s favorite store
Christmas Shopping for friends and loved ones
Game Arcade or Entertainment Center
Carnival or Circus if they’re in town
Concert or Performance (movies are fun too but then you don’t get to talk and interact as much so make this your back-up plan if other plans fall through)
Picnic at the park
Mini golf or go golfing at a course, if your child enjoys that or would like to try
Scavenger Hunt
Hiking
The beach or a pier if you live close
Amusement park (again, if you live close to one)

The most important thing is just to have fun, interact and talk. Get your kids to talk! If this intimidate you, well then…make a list of fun questions to ask during your time out together! Good luck!

The post Mommy/Son Date Night appeared first on Summer Adams.