Warming up - Fruit Stand Fun

Today marks the first official day of my blog. Ultimately, it is my goal to use mundane happenings and the world around me to post a creative-idea-a-day. Many of the ideas will center around ways to slow the world down through family activities, traditions and rituals. I believe the childhood we hope to create for our children is not so much about the sheer number of hours spent, but instead about the quality of that time. Family activities, rituals, and traditions serve as a focused way to spend time with your children while making them feel special in the process. No promises about the daily post, but it is a little challenge I have created for myself.

I returned home late last night after a weekend in Louisville, Kentucky. When I woke up this morning the first thing I saw was the fruit holder sitting in the center of our kitchen table where the kids eat breakfast. It was still decorated for Valentine's Day. The idea....

How about creating a single space in your home that the family frequents to help build excitement and anticipation for upcoming holidays and family events. I didn't have the time or inclination to decorate my whole home for Valentine's day, but certainly I had it in me to transform my fruit stand centerpiece. By filling it with red fruit, plastic hearts and beaded hearts on a stick (along with fun place mats from Target), I could build some anticipation and magic around what might otherwise be an overlooked holiday. If not a fruit stand at the kitchen table, how about a mud room, a play room, or a mirror in the kids bathroom.

Next holiday... green for Saint Patrick's Day. Check me out on March 1 where I will insert a photo of the transformed fruit stand.