[Jen_in_OH]

I'm looking for suggestions about how to celebrate Family Day. Our 1 year anniversary as a family is approaching (can't believe it!). I'm sure some of you have simple ideas about how to make the day feel special....thanks

Jen

[angelkisses0102]

We are very simple...nothing more than talking about the adoption, doing some of their favorite things and then dinner at their choice of restaurant. Maybe one or two other family members...but that's it.

We call it Family Day or Adoption Day and it is really a personal day for just 'our little family.' This year for Ari's 4th Family Day...we went to a huge 'touristy' mall (lots of fun stuff for a kid to do and see) by us...she got to play on the indoor playground, got to pick out a couple of outfits and we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory. It was just us and her Godfather/Great Uncle.

[waitinginnj]

Mine is just a family type of dinner with a little bit of reliving the story. When she is older she will pick a restaurant. It is usually the two of us or maybe with immediate family members, especially if it falls on or close to the weekend.

[tbristow]

We fixed a few Russian dishes and just had a quiet little family get together. As Hunter gets older, we'll probably branch out to do other things. He loved the aquarioum and since we're only 2.5-3 hours from two big ones, I think that may be an option for the 2nd one.

[skiboo]

We plan to keep it to just the three of us, although Grandma stopped by yesterday afternoon so she joined in and that was fine too.

Alex's first family day was a Thursday night and there was a street fair happening on the street where I work in celebration of Bastille Day... so we went to that, then had a quick dinner at a kid friendly restaurant and called it a day.

Yesterday was our 2nd family day and we had planned to go to Sesame Place. But Alex had a bit of a tummy bug and it was broiling hot here, so we ended up going to Chuck E. Cheese around 4pm and letting him play for an hour. We left and went to the mall to go to The American Cafe for dinner and then stopped at ToysRUs to buy a Little Tikes Picnic Table.

Oh, and each year I give him a hard cover picture book that has been inscribed and signed by the author. I go to library conferences and always manage to get signed books. He gets them for all special occasions.

[Ktates]

We just celebrate the day with the three of us. I kind of look at it like a birthday - instead of hearing how she was born she hears stories of our adoption adventure - what she was like the day we picked her up etc. We didn't do much for this first one due to some other unfortunate things going on - but we just spent the day with the three of us and went to the rainforest cafe for lunch - her first time and she loved it.

[KimOH]

We have a build-your-own-ice-cream-sundae party. To celebrate the adoption on the afternoon of court, we bought ice cream from a street vendor, so it seems like an appropriate way to commemorate each year.

DH and I each have one sibling (each has a spouse and two kids) and both sets of grandparents all live within 30 minutes of us, and DS's birthday is 2 weeks before our Family Day/Adoption Day/Gotcha Day (DS, now 5, prefers "Gotcha Day"). We always do it on the actual day, and whoever is available to come can come, but there's no pressure and no gifts.

To make it special we chop up cookies and candy and buy all the yummy sauces and whipped cream and sprinkles. DS thinks it's a great treat.

We made a special stop for ice cream after DD's adoption, too -- just to keep with "tradition." However, I can't decide what to do to commemorate her day. (Her day is only 5 weeks apart from DS's...but I can't think of another way to celebrate that would be different but equal -- or that has as much "connection" to our trip.)