The Great Backwards Day 2011

By Heather, on August 27th, 2011

Our annual backwards day was this Friday. Instead of calling them by their rightful names, I dubbed them: TaK, Mas, and Ellebana. Our dog, Sugar, was called “Ragus” all day… she didn’t mind as long as we still had the treats.

I love this way of ending summer! If you need ideas for your own backwards day, this was this year’s event:

8 a.m. They brushed their teeth (for bedtime) and then had a bedtime snack in the form of a Fruit Smoothie. Gather blankets and pillows for a pajama party.

10 a.m. With the lights out, blinds down, and curtains pulled, I offered the Pixar Shorts DVD as our movie, complete with popcorn. I gave them the choice of adding a handful of M&Ms or Skittles since it was dessert.

11:30 a.m. After the movie, they hung out for a while and changed clothes before dinner time. They could wear their shirts and shorts backwards if they wanted! Katarina made homemade Mac n Cheese while I picked a fresh cucumber from the garden to serve as their veggie. Hot dogs were optional.

12:00 Suit up for outdoor games and fun like a typical summer day but the fact that it was backwards day meant they could challenge each other to do everything backwards! I had previously filled water balloons and they played ‘bowling’ by throwing waterballoons over their heads and seeing if they could hit the target. This was a riot. Squirt guns meant holding the squirt gun backwards (squirting yourself).

The 'monster' bowling target they drew

2:00 We had to begin working on preparation for breakfast that night: cinnamon rolls!

3:30 Backwards geocaching! Instead of searching for a cache, we were dropped off at a random location and had to search for our driver… their dad! Luckily we had predetermined coordinates in our GPS to find him…

4:00 Found him! And what’s that he’s holding? A homemade coupon for free slushies for everyone! On a hot day this hit the spot.

5:00 Head home to pick greenbeans for lunch, while hubby grills up homemade pizza crusts.

7:30 p.m. Time for breakfast! Homemade cinnamon rolls cause the kids to rave and groan that it would be awesome if we could have this for a real breakfast (nope, too much sugar).

8:30 p.m. Head off to bed with choruses of “good morning!” and “Have a good day!”