Organizing Family Events to Make Memories
Each season I love watching family events unfold as memories are made. In the spring, it’s family pictures in bluebonnets, photos in strawberry patches, and kids holding eggs and baskets. In summer, it’s family reunion photos and July 4th patriotic family celebrations. In fall, kids in pumpkin patches, family Thanksgivings and lots of pictures with Santa make me smile. Making memories requires organization and time management. It takes planning and research, having your camera charged and ready, choosing kids’ outfits, and a lot of energy to be sure your family traditions happen. (Sometimes it requires having candy ready to “inspire” toddlers to sit still!) Family memories are generated by organizing family events.
So how do family memories and photos happen? Here’s how!
- Confer with your partner on upcoming events at a family meeting. What’s the next holiday, birthday or memory maker? Get this on all the calendars. You can add this to your online calendar as a recurring event so you can revisit your plans annually.
- What will be needed? Food? Clothing? Location? Travel plans? Jot these down and decide who is responsible for what. Writing out these plans makes it easier to look back and check on your responsibility. Great apps for this are Notes and Evernote.
- It’s the little details that are important. Create a checklist including dates. The checklist can be a list by date or day (such as Monday or May 5.) Include any detail that will derail the activity, such as charge camera, bring extra battery, purchase blue boy’s shirt size 6, or load bag into car.
- Set a deadline for getting the above tasks accomplished and check back in a week before to be sure everything is done.
- On the day of the event, double check your checklist and be sure everything is all set. Leave extra time for the oops that happen!
You may be shaking your head, wondering if this is really this simple. The hard part is staying on course with your family, keeping other intrusions off your calendar and working at the baby steps ahead of time. As families, we don’t want to miss out on anything. But it’s important to prioritize! We can’t do it all each year, but we can do what’s we love the most.
In years to come, when your kids and you are looking at family photos, you will all remember the fun! Looking back at your family photos from your childhood, what’s your favorite memory?
Check out my pinterest board Making Family Memories
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My dad always took lots of photos when we were young, and I thoroughly enjoy looking at them. Not just the posed family shots around the Christmas dinner table, but the everyday moments that would probably have been forgotten if not captured on film.
By the way, I had to look up “bluebonnets” – obviously, I’m not from Texas!
Pictures are so special as a family memory!
Note to non-Texas: it’s a big family tradition in April to gather your kids and pets in a field of wildflowers called bluebonnets.
You can learn more here at http://gotexas.about.com/od/texastravelfaqs/f/StateFlwr.htm
A successful event demands well party preparations. If you planned the events well, you won’t feel rushed. Try to get everything done prior to the party day.
Thanks for sharing! Being ready early definitely makes a difference!
A very nice blog.
Thanks!