While the winter season can be a blessing, sometimes it just gets unbearable, leaving everyone trapped inside. This can lead to boredom, feeling antsy, and kids having lots of energy to burn off with no outlet. As winter approaches, it doesn’t hurt to have an “emergency activity” prepared for these days to save yourself from the insanity. Your friends here at GameTruck understand that, so we’ve put together this excellent list of affordable ways to create excitement and memories with your family this season! Take a look at our list!

Video Game Party

Invite your kid’s new classmates over for an exciting memory-building experience they won’t forget. No matter what the weather is like outside, GameTrucks are always the perfect temperature inside. With hundreds of games to choose from, classics and new releases, your kid will love deepening their friendship with new and old friends. Call your local GameTruck today to book your fall party! 

Maple Syrup & Ugly Sweaters (Dec. 17th)

Did you know that December 17th is National Ugly Sweater and National Maple Syrup Day? If you’re looking for a fun, cheap entertainment idea, try an Ugly Sweater Pancake Party! Buy or decorate your own ugly sweaters, and make your favorite pancakes. Ask your friends and family to vote on their favorite ugly sweater!

Write a Letter to Someone

Everyone loves receiving stuff in the mail – except bills. Your kids can learn a lost skill and brighten a relative’s or friend’s day by writing and mailing a letter to someone.  

Plan a Vacation

Have your kids put on their tour guide hats and plan the coolest vacation. Dreaming is a great escape from the frigid winds and blustering flurries. Allow them to design an itinerary or a brochure advertising their vacation. Combine that research and creativity for an enjoyable and educational experience. 

Fitness Fun

No gym membership? No problem! Find tons of free kid-focused workout routines online with Google, Pinterest, or Youtube. They get to burn off that energy while learning about a healthy lifestyle. 

Create & Perform a Play

Tailor this idea to fit your child’s interests. Writing the script, creating the set, acting, and directing all can be explored in this event. Let your child explore their creative side with the dramatic arts in a fun, laid-back way that the whole family and extended family can enjoy. 

Do an Art or Science Kit

Learning can and should be fun! Grab an art or science kit you know your child will love and do it with them. These kits can be found online or in most stores. Go on a learning or creative journey with your kid to learn alongside them. 

Bake a Recipe

Cooking with your kids is a great way to build new memories and teach them life skills. These kid-friendly, cookbook-styled blogs are to the point with no long backstories, ads, or pop-ups.

Fun Recipes for your Kids to Make this Summer

3 Fun and Kid-Friendly Fall Recipes You Need to Try

Thrifted Costume 

Have some family fun with thrifty at your favorite second-hand stores. This idea is great for creating fun memories, affordability, and spontaneous Ness. Before you start, decide on a budget. How much is each person allowed to spend on their costume? Next, decide if you want to do special categories like the 80s or leave it open for imagination. Then head to your favorite stores. Be sure to take lots of pictures to post on social media to have friends and family vote for the costume they think is the best and the silliest. 

The winter season can be a blessing and a curse at the same time, but don’t let those frigid temperatures keep your family from having an awesome winter! Try an idea off our list, customize it, and beat the boredom!

Move over, kids! Hand over that controller to the master, the video game expert: Dad. In part one, we shared a killer gift list that’ll knock out gifting-giving stress. This week it’s time to focus on gift ideas for Dads or Husbands. Even though it’s freezing outside, you want a gift that’ll warm their heart. You want him to feel loved, appreciated, and special with your gift. You want a thoughtful gift that he’ll love, but perhaps, you’re struggling with ideas. What do you get someone with all the games and systems and their own money? Maybe you’re not feeling confident in your gaming knowledge, so you’re worried even more about the right gift for him. 

Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered! At GameTruck, we understand how important it is to find the right gift for the gamers in your life at a reasonable price. The holiday season can be crazy and overwhelming, but you can kick those negative feelings to the curb with this gamer-approved list that’ll help you be the coolest and show just how much you love them.

Need more ideas? Check out our Honorable Mentions list!

• Custom Gamer Tag Light
• Controller Holders
• 100 Video Game Scratch Off Bucket List Challenge

Finding the right gift can add an unnecessary burden on you. You want a gift showing just how much you love them while still being within your budget. Use this list of gift ideas for dads to help you rock this gift giving season!  

I have “mom brain.” “I’ll remember this!” are my famous last words. From walking into a room to going to the store multiple times a day, something always seems to slip my mind. Forgetting to buy the milk and my glasses are already on my face are funny little things we’ve all done, but there are things that I don’t want to forget, like my toddler’s earth-shattering yet extremely obvious discoveries like leaves aren’t yummy, or my son’s packed GameTruck party full of wild boys having a blast. These are the things I don’t want to forget. 

No matter how old I get, I never want to lose the smiles, victories, and laughs my family shared. Those are forever part of myself, part of my identity. So, for all the mommas who struggle with “mom brain” and want to hold onto every memory, this blog is for you. Here are four fun ways to preserve your fall memories for a future trip down memory lane!

Create a Fall Jar

Hobby Lobby, here we come! Throughout this holiday season, hold on to things that have special meaning. Have your kids do the same. You can create one jar as a family or help everyone make their own. At the end of the season, pull out some glass jars, glue, your memory items, and a piece of paper. Write down the memory that corresponds to each item. Arrange, glue, and decorate your jar to match your style. Hide your paper in the jar. At the end of this process, you’ll have a beautiful decoration and a capsule ready to save all your fall memories.

Start a Journal for your Fall Memories!

Writing has captured the human experience for thousands of years, so why not try it with yours? You don’t need pages upon pages of beautifully crafted words unless that’s what you want. Sometimes the best memories are short, sweet, and made of broken sentences. Did your toddler reach a brilliantly obvious deduction about life, like cows can’t fly? Maybe your son won his first-ever football game. Did your daughter learn a new skill? Did your spouse or partner tell a joke that made you pee your pants? All of these are perfect examples of things to write down. While these events may only be a few sentences in your diary, they will warm your heart every time you read them. 

Start a Family Journal.

Another option is to create a family journal. Allow your kids to write down, or have you write down, something that they feel is important to them. It may not make sense to them or us in the future, but it’ll provide plenty of laughs in the future to see how their little minds once worked. 

Do a Family Scrapbook for your Fall Memories!

If writing isn’t your thing, try a scrapbook! And, yes, they do sell kits! Scrapbooks can be a fun way to introduce your kids to their creativity with layouts, design principles, and much more! Scrapbooks also provide the fantastic opportunity to print all those pictures we’ve been meaning to print for months.

Make a Home Video!

Are you feeling nostalgia with this idea? While the process might be a bit different than how our parents made family videos, creating your own is a wonderful way to preserve memories, and the cool part is that most of us already have everything we need to do it. Most phones now shoot in 4K, so wipe off your camera lens and capture the moments you want to save! 

Once you’re done, you can download the app of your choice (or use Instagram) to combine the footage, add transitions, music, stickers, etc, to create the perfect home video.

Motherhood transformed me. It’s been a beautiful journey that’s taught me so much. “Mom” is more than just a title to me. It’s part of myself, my identity, and I don’t ever want to lose all of the positive fall memories that have made me who I am today. From family vacations to GameTruck birthday parties, I want to cherish them forever.