Why; Yes!

In our life full of children, jobs, classes, and other insanity we often say the word "no".
"No. you cannot eat that"
"No, you cannot jump down the entire flight of stairs"
"No, you cannot jump from couch to couch"
"No, you cannot skip showers this month"
"No, you cannot keep that as a pet"
"No, you cannot trade your sister for a brother to get your own room"

and so on.

A while ago (a few years?) Connor took the book "Yes Day" out of the library.
Taking a cue from that book, we decided to have our own yes day. (After years of begging...)

We began with polling the kids with what they wanted for lunch. They were a little slow to the idea though. Siobhan and Aisling wanted chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate; exactly what they had for lunch on Sunday! Connor wanted chicken strips... We asked them if they wanted to go anywhere and they said they just wanted to watch movies all day. (My kids can be so boring!) Finally, we suggested Pizza Putt. The resounding screams made it clear this was a hit. (Although my kids do scream incessantly....)

We headed to Pizza putt. Connor had two meals for lunch. ("Yes day")

Connor, Aisling and I then went off to play Laser Tag, (to work off those meals...) while Siobhan rode some rides and played some games with Al.

We had a good time with Laser tag. Connor is a perfectionist who is highly competitive. This can make it a challenge to join in with games like this. Today, though, he was great! We joined in with a larger group who was there, and Connor got to hang with some bigger kids. Unfortunately, Aisling's vest wasn't working. Thankfully, they gave us a free game, so we got to go back in. That was nice!

Siobhan had a blast riding the horses!

She was also able to do some bowling. She couldn't wait to show us all the bowling game!

The kids then spent some time in the ball put/climbing toys.

After several attempts, Siobhan was finally brave enough to go down the big slide:

(Only after her sister, of course)

Then there was a little time for bumper cars:

When we got home it was time to have dinner. "Yes day" dinner is apparently fondue and a movie.

The funny thing is that the kids didn't like the cheese fondue! (although they swore up and down it's what they wanted!) They were content to chow on bread, chicken, and grapes, since they knew dessert fondue wasn't far behind!

Nothing like chocolate covered fruit and pound cake to end out a great "yes day".

Our days are so busy. That's just the nature of our life. Our children are busy, and our jobs and lives are busy. Our children are also extremely well behaved, and are a joy to be around! Generally, when we participate in things like this it's for a special occasion; holiday or birthday. Today was so much fun. It was so beyond ordinary. The kids' bedtimes were late; chores were late; food was utterly unhealthy....! And yet it was so special just to enjoy letting the children take the lead. They were just so much fun to be around. Today was such a nice reminder of what special little people we have living in our home. One of the things I think was most wonderful was how simple their requests were. They were so happy! They were just genuinely excited about the whole thing! I wholeheartedly recommend that every family try a "yes day".

(A few guidelines: anything that gets done on a yes day has to be completed/consumed on that day. (i.e. no spending hundreds of dollars on new toys; no promises of things to come for tomorrow). If you have siblings, you may need to make compromises about your yes day requests; and yes days do have to end.)

At the end of the night, Aisling asked if we could do a "yes day" every weekend.While that will definitely not happen, I do look forward to another one happening at some point soon.