This here's a family tradition

I love the thought of family traditions.  I love starting traditions, planning traditions and talking about traditions.  But following through with traditions? Well that's a different story.  I guess it's kind of like a habit.  They say it takes about 66 times of doing something to form a habit and if that truly is that case then I don't see myself forming any habits in any time soon! I know the kids love tradition and routine as well.  If I mention that we are going to have pizza on a Friday night Madeline will say "Is today Friday? So maybe we should say that every Friday we have pizza"  They thrive on routine and pretty much have their whole lives.  Too bad they have me for a mother huh? hahahaha But one thing I can say we do on a regular basis is popcorn and banana milk shakes.  Now it isn't always on a Sunday night, but usually it is.  Sometimes we will watch a movie (and I fall asleep) or we will watch Planet Earth (and I will fall asleep) So tonight I decided maybe the kids are old enough to play a game. (I love games so definitely no falling asleep!) So down I went to the basement to find a game.  And there it was RUMMIKUB!!!! Now I don't want to exaggerate but this might be one of the greatest games.  When I was a little girl I went through a phase of wanting to play this all the time.  I remember playing at my grandparents house and I loved it.  I loved it so much that for Christmas one year I got the Rummikub Tournament Edition!!!

 It was a beautiful, padded faux leather case, engraved tiles, you know the works.  So when I saw that beauty in the game box I knew what we were going to do. 

 The box said ages 8&up but we all know how advanced my kids are so I usually ignore those guidelines.  

Before we started the actual memory making I did a practice round with the kids to make sure it would actually be enjoyable.  :) They seemed to get the concept so on we went to......

.....Making the snacks.  

Traditionally Matt is the milk shake maker and I am the popcorn maker.  

Yummy!

And I would say these bananas are ripened to perfection!

  

And could this fella be any cuter?

 Sweet buttery goodness, and don't forget the parmesan cheese!

Now the real fun begins!  The kids did pretty good.  Madeline really started to get the game and she was doing lots of switching and figuring out her moves on her own.  

 I think Jude had fun but he didn't last quite as long as the rest of us.

 But he eventually ended up on the floor, in the other room, and under the chairs at one point!

In other news Saturday we attended our first WSU football game.  Unfortunately they did not win but we sure had a lot of fun.  The kids each got a WSU flag that kept them pretty entertained most of the game.  

Sunday we finally made it to church!Yippee, we really enjoyed it and are planning on going back next week.

So please, do tell me about some of your family traditions! I would love to think about trying them out at my house. :)