Old traditions are continued

As a child I spent a lot (pretty much most) of time at my grandparents house.  My Nanny was my best friend in the world, the only person who truly understood me and loved me even more because of it!  I am not going to lie to you I was SPOILED by my grandparents!  There was NEVER a day that I looked into the freezer and could not find chocolate icecream.  And never a weekend passed that my Nanny didn't prepare my favorite meal on Sunday.  Every Sunday evening without fail Nan would make a ham dinner with scalloped potatoes just for me....I know this because she also made double the recipe so I could take leftovers home for the week :)

With my favorite meal we also got to sit out in the dining room, use the fine china & crystal, and light candles.  This was a special weekly tradition was just for me!  No one could make me feel more special than my Nanny & Grampy.

I have lots of fond memories of my grandparents that I love to share with my kids as often as possible.  And now that they are getting older we are starting to incorporate some of my favorite traditions in our own lil family.

So tonight we had our first candle lit dinner.

To prepare for our first candle lit dinner we made placemats.  I saw this idea on one of my favorite blog sites confessions of a homeschooler.  But we opted to go with a paper version.

front side

Ainsley's personalized side

Ava's personalized side

We used a legal sized file (trimmed), scrapbook paper (plate, cup, napkin & handprints) & construction paper (utensils)  for one side. 

Then I let them decorate the other side with stickers, die cuts & a tic tac toe board. And then covered both sides with mactac (lets just say clear the room of kids & men before attempting this because you have to get it right the first try or you have to start from scratch...or have a really wrinkled mat like Ava does)

We had a lovely meal of roast beef, carrots & potatoes (scalloped ofcourse) and chocolate pudding for dessert.  While we ate we discussed proper table manners for "fancy" restaurants vs. everyday meals with the family. Over all it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience for everyone ...even Dad who still argues that his fork is in the "wrong" place ;)