Kids Late Night Extravaganza – The New Tradition

Afew months ago my friend Valerie began telling me of her plans to celebrate theend of the school year with her children by taking them on an all nighter offun.  Being a former Youth Pastorswife I had plenty if experience when it came to all nighters of fun.

Backin our youth Pastoring days an All Nighter meant loading onto a bus around 10pmand begin heading to the first of many activities such as bowling, skating,broom hokey, putt putt golf, with stops along the way for food. This activitylasted until the next morning – hours of fun for active teenagers and oneexhausting night for the youth pastor and his wife.

So,you would think I’d look at Valerie and say you are crazy but instead I said couldwe join in?  The planning began andwe soon realized that many places were not opened in the middle of the nightfor two moms and their kids like they were for 100 teens and their youthpastor.  So our all nighter of funquickly turned into a Late Night Extravaganza.

Webegan our late night extravaganza at 4:30 pm by giving our kids their firstclue- an oversized ticket that Valerie made using her handy dandy Cricutmachine.  We began driving to ourfirst destination only to have to hear “where are we going?  Give us more clues.” Until we enteredthe parking lot, then they knew it was time for dinner and our first stop atThe Old Spaghetti Factory.

Afterdinner we continued with a clue for each destination to add a little suspensealong the way.  Our stops includedBowling (using our kids bowl free coupons), Dairy queen for ice cream, a movie,a round of putt putt golf and we ended with mid night munchies at a local drivethru.

Ourschedule looked like this

4:30– Meet at Valerie’s house

5:00– Dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory

6:30 - Bowling

8:00 - Dairy Queen

9:00- Movie

11:00- Putt Putt Golf

12:00- Midnight Munchies

TheNovotny kids were home and in bed by 1:30am  (Valerie’s kids really did stay up most the night watchingmovies with their super mom)

Ourkids enjoyed their first late night extravaganza and are already wondering ifthese two moms will make this an annual end of the school year tradition.  I guess they will have to wait and see.

You could do this fun event anytime of year  - so why not add this to your Summer Bucket List of Fun to do with your kids this Summer