Lets have fun looking at these 10 fun nostalgic activities for your kids. In our last blog I gave you a challenge challenge on to you to turn off the TV for one night. Do fun things like they did in the past without a TV. Let’s discuss some nostalgic activities to do with your kids.

I hear it all the time. “The reason to have kids is so you can play with the toys yourself.” It brings back memories. challenge on to you. Turn off the TV for one night. Do fun things like they did in the past without a TV. To learn more ideas of things you can do, stay tuned in for out next blog.

1. Go outside and fly a kite. Make education more fun for your kids, by teaching them while they get to have fun at the same time.

2. Put on boots and jump in puddles. You can go way back in history and put bread sacks over your shoes with rubber bands to hold them on. Who remembers doing that? My grandma always saved old bread sacks just in case we wanted to go outside and did not have our boots with us.

3. Climb a tree. Remember when we used to see who could climb the highest in the tree? Spend time bonding with your child and make a homemade tree house. The tree house is where some of my brother’s best memories come from.

4. Skip stones across a pond. Again, it is a time to see how many skips your rock does. I still think my brother miscounted, even though he always won.

5. Have a picnic outside and make animals out of the clouds in the sky. This is a great activity to stretch your child’s imagination.

6. Sit back and just spend time listening to the rain under a tin roof. Teach your kids how you can tell how far away a thunderstorm is by the number of seconds between a lightening bolt and the thunder crack sound. It is approximate, but the number of seconds between the lightening bolt and thunder, equals how many miles away the storm is.

7. Visit a farm and see the animals. Take a horseback ride. Teach your kids not everything you eat comes from the grocery store.

8. Write a letter to yourself in the future. What do you think the world will look like 10, 20, or 50 years from now?

9. Get out your old toys as a kid and play with your child’s new toy dolls. It is like meshing two generations into one play family.

10. Make a time capsule together, preserving some of our child’s toys. You can also make a family time capsule together. Let each of your children throw in one special toy that they do not play with anymore but want to save. Pick out other items that represent your family.

Recall your old school life or childhood with your friends and siblings, as you play with your old toys of the past. Break out your Rubics cube. Call your friends over and tell them to bring some of their old toys. This could be one fun baby sitting hour with your children, while you go back in time playing with each other. Remember Teddy Ruxpin? What other stuffed bears were popular in your time? Have a Super Soaker squirt gun fight in your yard. You can still find some old Super Soakers on Ebay.

What was your favorite toy of the past? Compare your old baby doll to the newer technology dolls for your child today. I remember when Cabbage Patch kids were popular. Now there are baby dolls that talk, cry, and are very life like. What about the popular time of beanie babies? What is the most popular stuffed animal of today? I am sure it will be worth a fortune years in the future.

Save your old toys in a time capsule, to pass on to your children in the future. You never know how much of a collector’s item these toys will be in the future. You are preserving your child’s college fund when you put these items in a time capsule now.  You can get your own DIY Time Capsule here, to get started today.

So go outside today. What old nostalgic activity would you like to do with your kid today? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 10 Fun Nostalgic Activities for your Kids appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Have you ever wished you could turn the clock backwards and go back in time? What if you could relive that special birthday or first year of your baby’s life all over again? Would you do it if you had the chance? Let’s learn about different ways to go back in time.

You know if I could go back in time and do my English classes all over again, I would. Only this time I would enjoy writing because I would write about all kinds of things that I could save up as blogs to publish in the future (or now) when blogging is popular. It would be interesting to see how my blogs (or known as “essays” in the past) would have changed over time up until today. Then, if I knew in the past, that I could possibly be paid to write these blog posts, I would have been a very dedicated student and wouldn’t have complained as much about writing if I knew I could earn money for it.

What things would you have done differently, if you could go back in time? 

It is a thought provoking question that we may or may not want to think about, let alone answer. Sometimes going back in time or history can help us realize how far we have come, what all we have accomplished, and just how thankful we should be.

List of Reasons Why to go Back in Time

1. It would be cool to meet ancestors or relatives we never had a chance to get to know. You could also go back in time to see your favorite pet.
2. Be able to start over in life and make a difference.
3. Be able to see your favorite old music group in concert.
4. You can fix old mistakes in your life if you go back in time.
5. It would be fun to play with old toys or games of the past.
6. You could pretend that your parent’s never got divorced, or any other bad thing that has happened today.
7. You could go back to dating again and think a little more clearly about who you wanted to marry.
8. You could go back in time and learn what life was like when your mom or dad was a kid.
9. You could meet historical characters of the past.
10. Go back in time to see what life was like when you were a baby.

I am sure there are many other reasons, but these are just a few to get you thinking. What would be your reason why you would want to go back in time? Share in the comments below.

List of Ways to go Back in Time

• Through memory, you can return to your childhood or when you were younger. When did you first fall in love? You can reminisce with your memories just by using your five senses too. Just the smell of a specific perfume or cologne can bring back vivid memories.
• Go to an old restaurant or building that has been up for years or even decades. Go to the museum and reminisce through history.
• Listen to a record on a record player. It sounds so different, compared to music today, and will take you way back.
• Go back in time and visit your old house you grew up in, or you can pull it up on Google maps and view it there.
• You can turn back time on your computer and see what all you were working on in the past, by doing a system restore.
• Think about how far you have come in life, by writing your updated resume. It is interesting to think about all your old jobs and how they have influenced you to this day.
• Bring all your old social media memories back, years later using the Timehop app. It is a cool social time machine.
• Pull out your old photo album and recollect all your old stories and memories.
• Listen to old songs you loved as a teenager.
• Play old childhood games.
• Make a time capsule and collect all your sentimental mementos and memorabilia in. Then, years later open the time capsule and go back in time reminiscing about what life was like when you were born, married, or any other special milestone moment in your life. Use the “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule to create a time capsule for any subject you want. It could be for a graduation, your life, family, charity, business, birthday, etc. Get your DIY Time Capsule here.

So what ways do you take yourself back in time? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 11 Ways to Go Back in Time appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

What refrigerator memories do you have? What photos do you have on your refrigerator door? We seem to put our most meaningful and proud pictures on our refrigerator door. Ah the smell of fresh baked apple pie lingers in the house. “Mommy who is this?” Aniah points to a picture on the refrigerator. “That is your great grandmother who created this apple pie recipe and many others.”

What is on Your Refrigerator?

You can learn a lot about someone just by looking at their refrigerator, like how many kids someone has or what kinds of pets do they have. What does their daily schedule look like? I know our fridge has many different items on it like photos, favorite quotes, fun magnets, kids artwork, proud homework with a gold star on it, grocery list, to do list, etc. I am sure you can relate.

Your refrigerator is like a time capsule, inside and out. Think about it, what preserved photos do you have on your fridge? Your calendar tracks what you have done this past week, month, year. Save your calendar in an actual DIY Time Capsule, to open years later and reminisce about what you accomplished this year.

For some fun craft ideas:

• Turn your old cd’s into magnets for your refrigerator. Go back in time every time you look at your old cd. I am sure you will start singing your favorite old songs too.
• Reminisce by making macaroni art with your child to put on your refrigerator.
• Make your own photo magnets by buying magnets sticker sheets from your local Walmart or office supply store.
• Don’t just throw away that card you just received from a friend or family member, turn it into a magnet.

Your Refrigerator is a Timeline of your Life

On the inside of your Time Capsule, I mean Refrigerator; you may have leftovers from your grandmother’s favorite apple pie recipe. You may have the top layer of your leftover wedding cake you are saving to eat on your special anniversary. You may even need to clean out your refrigerator due to your moldy and aged leftovers in the back right corner of your fridge. Yuck.

Is it time to clean out your refrigerator? I do not like the thought of cleaning it out, but the other day I realized it is time. With all this snow this past Winter, you get closed in and eventually cabin fever. Winter is a time to get many things done, that I usually put off or do not have time to do during the Spring or Summer. I can always find more fun or interesting things to do when the weather is nice.

There are so many things about a refrigerator that can bring back memories, like the different flavor syrups that we used when we made our first snow cones together last Summer. What about the three quarters full bottle of balsamic vinegar from when you tried to make you first fancy recipe for your husband? That concoction did not turn out as good as the picture you saw on Pinterest. What about that homemade grape jelly stuck to the shelf, that you and the kids spent hours picking and mashing grapes together ,from the vineyard. Ah, memories.

Clean out Your Life – Create a New Time Capsule

You know our lives can be like our refrigerator. Every now and then we need to do some cleaning, removing old habits, or bitter thoughts of our past. A time capsule and cleaning out your refrigerator is a great way to reminisce, however remember it is all in the past. You can start today and create a clean, new life for yourself by reading motivational books, increasing your self-esteem, surrounding yourself with new and better friends, go on a diet and start exercising, etc. It would be interesting to start a new “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule to save different memories from this new clean journey in your life, then open the time capsule years later and see how far you have come.

Refrigerator styles have even changed a lot over the past years. I am so grateful to live today. If I was asked as a kid what do you think refrigerators will look like 20 or 30 years from now, I never would have guessed they would have TVs in them or computers, would you have guessed that? Our technology is so advanced now.

So what is in on the outside of your refrigerator? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Refrigerator Memories – DIY Craft Ideas appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Angie called our office to order a second baby time capsule. She and her husband were told almost 16 years ago they could not get pregnant. Three months later, they were pregnant. Angie is now pregnant with their second child. When their first daughter turns 16 in a few weeks, they will present her with the first time capsule. Three weeks after their first daughter’s birth, Angie’s grandfather passed away. Before he died, he wrote Angie’s first child a “Message to the Future” (TM) and placed it inside her time capsule. What a precious moment that will be when Angie’s daughter opens her time capsule and finds her great grandfather’s hand-written letter to her with a picture of him holding her in the hospital. Memories like this are the original legacy that we leave our customers. Each time capsule is original in of themselves, as they are personalized with love.

This story could be you too. Please do not wait until it is too late for your children to remember who their grandparents were, what their background was like, and the opportunity for them to relive what life was like when your grown child was a baby.

We are going to discuss how to put together a time capsule for you to store in a hidden closet or display in your home. We are not going to talk about a time capsule you bury. This is another subject, for a different blog for the future. Besides, if you have a time capsule in your home, you never have to worry about forgetting where you buried it. Also, when you move, you do not have to dig it up. Just take it with you where ever you go.

What you Need to Put Together a Time Capsule

Just like a recipe has ingredients there are a few things that can help you put together your own time capsule.

• shoe box, cylinder container of some kind, or you can purchase an “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule here to easily and quickly get started.
• Stationary paper and pen
• Camera
• Video recorder
• Printer
• Markers
• Stickers
• Pictures
• Scrapbook embellishments or crafts
• Popular toys
• Newspaper
• Magazines
• TV guide
• Current ads
• Jewelry
• Journal
• Photographs
• Souvenirs or other favorite things
• Cards or Letters

Steps to Put Together a Time Capsule

1. Decorate the outside of your time capsule with anything you want. If you choose to purchase the “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule, you can use markers, stickers, or any artwork you want to print out on the included sticker sheets to wrap around the outside of your time capsule. You can even download your own photos from social media, phone, or computer and print them out on the sticker sheets included to wrap on the outside of your DIY Time Capsule.

2. Look around your house, your friend’s house, out in public, at your grandparents house, etc to find items that are sentimental and you want to save in your time capsule. Choose items that you think will preserve well. For example, do not keep food in your time capsule (yes, even a twinkie), because it will not last 10, 20, or 50 years from now.

3. Spend some time writing a “Message to the Future” letter to yourself about what you think you will be doing several years from now. How many kids do you think you will have? Will you get married? Where will you live? What will college life be like? Do you really think people will be living on Mars in the future? These are just some examples of questions to get you started.

4. Place all your meaningful items in the time capsule. You may even include an inventory list, explaining whey you put each item in your time capsule. Then seal up your time capsule using tape, stickers, or any other creative device you can think of.

5. Think of a date in the future when you want to open the time capsule? Write that date on the outside of your time capsule, or use the date stickers included in our time capsules at www.TimeCapsule.com to fill in the section of the lid to the time capsule, which says “Do Not Open Until …..” You fill in the date.

6. Pick a place to store you time capsule. Do you want it proudly displayed on your shelf in a room, showing off your beautiful artwork on the outside, or do you want it hidden in a closet so you forget about it? Either way, make sure you set a reminder on a calendar online, like a Google Calendar, to remind you when to open it in the future. You can even schedule a future email to be sent to you reminding you to open the time capsule.

7. Most importantly, have fun making your time capsule. This is a time of reflection and remembrance.

So, what would you put in your time capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post How to Put Together a Time Capsule appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Learn about creative ways to teach future generations about today. Have you ever thought about what the world will be like in the future. What are some creative ways to teach future generations about today? What are you doing today, that you may no longer be doing 20 or 30 years from now? Think about it. What are you holding in your hand right now? My guess is a cell phone, or you are are on a laptop. Will that exist in the future?What is your day job, and how do you think it will be different in the future? How will teaching or schools be educating students 10, 50, or 100 years from now?

There are already so many new technologies and opportunities to inspire, lead, shape, and help people discover how to make new connections, engage students, solve problems, and create fun learning environments redefining education and future careers, and changing the future.

I remember I could not wait for the bookmobile to come to our school. They always had the coolest books. Remember going to the library all the time just to get homework done. Now that is a thing of the past. There are now so many books online, free downloadable activity books, coloring pages, or other similar things I remember from the bookmobile. Also, the internet is flooded with information to help students get their homework done. I remember feeling like I could not survive as a child without a computer at home. Now students are assigned their own tablets for school in addition to books they may have to buy for classes, and that is for elementary schools. I am not even discussing college students.

1. Share Your Stories of Past with Your Children

It is so amazing how things change so fast. Many times we get so busy in our day to day, that we forget what we did yesterday. I am someone who firmly believes you can gain respect and help your kids be grateful for what they have, by teaching them what it was like when you were a kid. I remember hearing my parents start their stories, “When I was a kid….” Back in the past, I remember thinking, “oh boy here comes another childhood story.” Sometimes you do not realize how special your elders and mentors are until you leave their house, grow up, and/or have children of your own. Now, I know why they told me all those stories.

2. Message to the Future

Can you imagine if we could show our kids what their life would look like in the future, if they keep up their current habits and lifestyle. I am sure there are many nurses and doctors who wish they could get through to the children of today about how unhealthy some food are and could go on the rant about how we are super sizing our kids with food today. What about all the extra undue stress that the world is putting on our children too. Is there something you would like to say to your child about how to reduce stress now, so their lives will be better or less anxiety ridden in the future. If you could write a letter to them to read when they are a baby, and when they become a teenager, they get to read it, what would you say to them? Also, include words of encouragement, happy stories, and advice for other areas of life they may face in the future.

3. Make a Video about the World Today

Since everyone is using videos nowadays, why not make your own about what the world is like around us today. Include significant people in your life, in the video. Ask them different questions, interview style, about what they think the future will look like. I am sure it will be interesting for those of the future to watch the video again and see if any of your predictions came true. You could also create your own family blog and write about different current topics each day. It would be interesting to see how fast the trending topics change over the years, while reading the blogs in the future.

 4. Make a Time Capsule

Preserve some of the most important items you think the future generations would appreciate in a time capsule. You can buy an “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule from www.TimeCapsule.com and design it however you want on the outside. It is a nice tin that you can draw on with markers, paint on, attach scrapbooking type embellishments on, ribbon, stickers, etc. The sky’s the limit. You can call the time capsule anything you want. For example, “My Life” Time Capsule. These time capsules are not meant to be buried, but instead to display on a shelf in a special room in your house as a reminder of your world today, to give to future generations or your own children in the future, for when they too ask, “what was it like when you were a kid?”

So what was life like when you were a child? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Creative Ways to Teach Future Generations appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

What are some things you can think of that kids of today will never experience? Ok, so I finally saved enough money to buy my very first car. I knew there was no way my parents would buy me a car. I wanted to look cool. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to have a car by my 16th birthday too, just like everyone else. It was nothing fancy, but I was proud not necessarily because I had a car, but because I worked hard helping my parents with chores at home, and at my job to save enough money to buy an old ’87 white Ford Tempo. My work ethic has not stopped, and I am forever grateful to my parents for that. I have learned so much from my good old days.

One day I was on my way to youth group at church, and my car died. Does anyone remember the days of having to use a pay phone (if you could find a working one), just to call for someone like your dad, to come and save the day? That is exactly what I had to do. I got out of my car, walked a ways down the road to a gas station, and had to use a pay phone. I did not have a convenient cell phone back then.

Remember the Good Old Days

Do you miss the good old days? I know I do. There are many things that come to mind when people just mention the 80’s or 90’s. There were good and bad memories tied into these times. It always starts with a parent or grandparent saying, “I remember when I was a kid…” and then my cousins and I would fill in the sentence saying, “…you walked up the hill both ways to go to school.” Then, that was always followed by a big laugh.

I cannot believe that I am now old enough to be telling stories of ‘the good old days.’ That was never suppose to happen to me. I was suppose to stay young forever. Times really have changed. I remember telling my parents when I was in high-school, “Mom, Dad, if this is how the world is now, what will it be like when I have kids?”  My parents told me later, it was a wise, scary question for a young teenager to be thinking about.

I have always been the person who thinks about the future. The person who makes decisions based on what will be the consequences or rewards, in the future, if I make this choice in my life now. I know not everyone is like that, but when you grow up in a family that does not have much, you tell yourself at a young age that you never want to live like this in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, I am beyond grateful for not having much, because it pushed me more to work hard to acquire much in the future. It seems like in my family who could not afford the latest and greatest video games, time was slower because we were able to concentrate on being more creative with each other. My brothers and I had to come up with creative games to play. We had to learn how to make chores fun, to the point that we ended up wanting to do them for free for our parents out of respect and boredom sometimes.

1. A World Without Cell Phones and Computers

Soon there will no longer be a generation who remembers growing up without cell phones and computers. What a scary thought. Remember when the hashtag sign, actually meant pound. So how long do you think it will take for a phone auto attendant to say push “hashtag” instead of “pound” to reach whomever you are trying to call or your account information. I also remember constant yelling in our house back and forth between my brothers and I, “get off the internet, so I can use the phone.” I am not even going to bring up how long it took to download songs on the internet in the past.

2. Black and White TVs

Who remembers the TV when it was black and white? Who remembers renting VCR tapes, instead of DVD’s? Who would have thought that you can now watch so many movies and tv shows off of your computer, let alone for free now. I remember the saying on the VCR tapes that said, ‘Please be kind, Rewind.’ Hopefully I am not giving away my age too much.

3. A World Without GPS

Who remembers having to pull out the big, bulky folding map or atlas in the car just to find out where you were, let alone where you were going? We did not have GPS back in the past. I guess the long lost joke about a guy never stopping to ask someone for directions is no longer needed, since everyone has a GPS now. Forget about even trying to fold your map back up when you are done. It is so convenient now to just turn your GPS off when you are done using it.

So what stories do you remember of the past? How do you keep these stories alive? Why not try making your own Family Time Capsule with the “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule from http://www.timecapsule.com/product/milestone-collection-any-occasion-diy-time-capsule/. For other fun similar articles on this topic, check out 31 Struggles Kids Today Will Never Understand.

So what do you remember from your ‘good old days’ that kids of today will not experience? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 3 Things Kids of Today will Never Experience appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Have you ever wanted to write a message to the future letter to yourself? It sat in my closet for years. I don’t even remember what is in it. Do you remember making a time capsule as a kid in elementary school? Do you know what ever happened to your own time capsule?

How have you changed over the past years? What has affected you in life to make those changes? What advice would you give to others or your own children or grandchildren about life today? A time capsule is a great place to save that advice, so when your loved one is of a specific age, you can give them the time capsule filled with your valuable insight about life.

Write Letters of Advice

When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone you love? Remember that feeling of receiving an actual letter in the mail, rather than email? Technology is amazing, don’t get me wrong here. I would not be able to stay up to date with the life of my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Texas if we did not have social media and email. However, there is nothing like receiving a personalized note or letter in the mail.

What to Do with Your Accumulating Wisdom

So as we all grow up, we accumulate more wisdom on a daily basis. So what is your view on life? What mistakes have you made that you do not want your children or grandchildren to make? What success have you had and what steps did you take to get there? Most importantly, do not ever forget to tell your loved one how much you love them in a letter. You never know what can happen to your life, unfortunately.

Don’t Wait Until You are Gone to Be Remembered

Pass on your legacy today. There are many different ways to share your wisdom in life to your children and grandchildren. How else do you know what you have in common with your grandparents or great grandparents, if they never share their stories with you?

Topics to Write About in your own “Message to the Future” Letter

1. Favorite recipe and how you created it or who it has been passed down from.

2. Teach a skill, like fishing, fixing something on your house, or how to advance yourself at your job. The ideas are limitless. Share your gifts and talents with your children and grandchildren.

3. Talk about your family tree and use one or two words to describe the personalities of each person.

4. Pretend like you are going through family interview questions, and talk about your own biography. Many people’s lives are so fascinating, but you will never know about them if these stories are not written out. Talk about what life was like when you were young.

5. Talk about what clothes you wore as a kid, or what you did for fun when you were bored.

Make a Bigger Connection and Add Personal Mementos and Memorabilia to Your Time Capsule

Finally, add more tangible items to your time capsule, along with these sentimental letters. I am sure you have a box somewhere or a storage container in your attic with items that can help tell your life story. What do you want to pass on to your children or grandchildren that you want preserved forever? By passing on your memories, you are making sure you will never be forgotten about.

Do not wait until it is too late to pass on your life story. It will be the most memorable and lasting gift you can give to your children or grandchildren. Check out this other helpful article about Five Ways to Pass on Wisdom to Younger Generations. Get your own time capsule here today and get started on your “Message to the Future” letter to your children or grandchildren.

What is your favorite story from your grandparents? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 5 Topics for your Message to the Future Letter appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

How exactly are clothes like a time capsule? Read on to find out. What does you clothes closet look like? Do you still have old clothes from several years ago? I know I do. Recently I pulled out old necklaces and looked at old photos of my grandmother (my mom’s, mom). It is amazing to see the differences in clothing styles then compared to now. Do you ever go shopping and see a shirt and just know or say out loud, “I can so see (insert someone’s name you know) in that shirt?” Have you ever thought about how clothes are like a time capsule. They can tell you about the past era.

Who Influences your Clothing Style?

So when it came time for the fun shopping part of my wedding, I could not wait. Even though my mom and I are close, we are opposite when it comes to clothing likes. She is a plain, Jane kind of girl. I like to have clothes with designs, patterns, and bright colors. I found out from my mom, that apparently I got that from her mom (my grandmother), who wore bright colors all the time. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out from your family history who you dress like? You can find out if you keep pictures, or sample pieces of clothing in your own Family Time Capsule.

Pass your family time capsule down as each new child has a baby themselves, keeping these clothing styles or other interesting facts and stories alive. You can get an “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule here and then put a large family photo on the outside of it, or any family photos on the outside of it and decorate it yourself. Then, fill your new Family Time Capsule with fun things you want to look at again years later as a family, reminiscing about what life was like for your family or your grandparents when they were young and cool.

Styles Come and Go

You can take one trip through a store like Goodwill and know that clothing styles come and go. If you were to put some clothing in a time capsule to let future generations know what’s in style now, what should you put in there? It is always fun to collect old newspaper ads to save over the years and put them in your time capsule too. Not only do they show the clothing style differences, but also the price differences for a shirt over the past years. From Uggs, crocs, to skinny jeans, the ideas are endless laughs waiting to happen in the future. Also if you put a photo or sample piece of a pair of parachute pants in a time capsule, you are asking to be embarrassed for the rest of your life when that time capsule would be opened. I am warning you. These time capsules are a big party of family fun when they are opened.

If you are trying to lose weight like myself, it can also be very fun to take pictures of your clothes over time to see how far you have come, when you open your time capsule years later. Did you gain your weight back, or are you smaller now? Clothes in general can tell you a lot about someone. That is why as teenagers when we are all trying to find our identity, we are working hard to find the ‘perfect’ outfit to make us look good.

Teachable Moments – The Shopping Trip

Keep in mind as parents, the new school clothing shopping trip can be great bonding time with your children. Take advantage of this memory making moment to find out what their style is and learn about them. Do not force your clothing interest ideas on them. If the clothes being picked out are risky and not appropriate, use the opportunity to talk about self esteem, or help them learn how to look cool and confident, instead of yelling at your child for wearing things that you would have never of worn in your generation. When you take the time to determine their style, it makes it easier to pick out clothes for Christmas gifts too.

So how can you turn shopping time into bonding time? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post How Clothes are Like a Time Capsule appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Do you miss some of your childhood memories? I was seven years old when the Atari 2600 came out. This was truly an amazing machine. With a full 8 bit processor, over 350 games that attached to your tv, it was sure to allow for hundreds if not thousands of hours of family fun. To think this was all for under 50 dollars.

My family has always been competitive. We compete in sports, board games, and even life in general. Soon, we would be competing in the electronic world of video games. A few years back, my mom was at a garage sale and for a quarter picked up a plaque that you hang on the wall. This plaque had a plastic tube for which you put dimes in. According to the plaque, once it was full, you had 50.00 worth of dimes. Our family had been saving all of their dimes for a little more than a year. The time had finally come to purchase a “family” gift. We had decided on Atari’s new joy machine.

We purchased the entertainment system at K-Mart. It was $50.00 well spent. The box was plain and simple, without much printing on the outside.  I remember wanting to open it in the car on the way home. We had purchased two additional games with the machine, which came with two as well. The two included games were Stampede and Pac -Man. We also purchased Pong and Combat (Combat had 64 games built into one). This is every kid’s dream. Everyone knows the classic Pac-Man, but the graphics on this were terrible, certainly not like the arcade version.  In Stampede, you are a cowboy on a horse running a track roping all of the loose cows. While I was not much of a real cowboy, nor did I ever want to be, Stamped allowed me to escape into a world where riding horses and five gallon hats not only made me cool, but made me think that pressing a button would help me catch cows.

Let the Competition Begin

Over the next two to three years, we purchased a huge collection of games. At one point, we had over 400 cartridges which gave us almost 500 games including everything from Pitfall to River Raid, Keystone Capers, to Crackpots. We had a sheet of paper taped to the entertainment center, where we kept track of our high scores. No score could be legally changed without a witness. (Although I think my brother may have changed some of his when no one was watching. I never would have done this. Wink Wink).

It was years later before the Nintendo came out. While all of our friends and neighbors bought these systems and played their games, which we better in their graphics and speed, and harder with their extra button on the controller, we never upgraded from our Atari 2600. Our family would challenge each other for hours with the phrase ‘I play the winner.’ This kept the competition going and going, and going.

Relive your Childhood Memories Today

A few years back while shopping at Goodwill my wife and I purchased an original Atari 2600. While the newer gaming systems provide high def graphics, realistic sound, and a much better playing environment, to me they are not quite as good as the Atari 2600. When I begin to play Pitfall 2, Dig Dug, or Burger Time the memories of my childhood come flooding back. I was especially good at Baseball and Tank Wars. Although, I could never beat my brother at Football (either electronic or in real life). Nothing brings back fond memories with my family quite like the hours spent playing these games. It is amazing to me 30 years later, that I still find joy in these simple games for children. Currently, I can play these games with my parents and have friendly competition and believe it or not, life lessons were learned through this game system. Practice makes perfect. Competition is good. Life isn’t always fair, and don’t be a sore loser or winner. These are the moments that count.

So what is the most precious thing I would keep in a time capsule…a game cartridge from my Atari 2600. You could also save your family score sheet you all wrote on keeping track of your own family competition throughout the years. The blue ink over the black ink is a dead giveaway that my brother changed the scores. Ha Ha. I know he changed that score from a 3 to an 8. Preserve these items in your own Family Time Capsule by using this “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule to create your own Family Time Capsule. Get yours today here. Check out this other fun article about 50 Things only 80’s Kids can Understand or Remember.

What memories do you have of your childhood that you relive today? What brings you closer to your family? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

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When is the last time you wrote a love letter to someone? So I was curious what that large box was in my parent’s closet for years. No one ever opened it. The box was extremely heavy for my eight year old arms to move, so I had to push it out of the closet with my feet. Once I got the box out, it was filled with a lot of old photo albums and letters. The letters were written from my mom and dad back and forth while my father was in Vietnam and my mother was still in college in Texas. It is interesting what you can learn about your parents when they are not looking. Secretly I started to read the letters. They were definitely in love. Yuck. I was not into boys at that age.

Now that I remember this moment when I was eight, I reflect back and realize how romantic that was. It was a collection of moments my parents might have forgotten about had they not saved every letter. It was a priceless moment.

Hold on to Love Letters

With Valentine’s day coming up, it is important to realize that love letters are not just meant for a girlfriend or boyfriend. They are meant for anyone we care about deeply. Handwritten letters add intimacy and interest to your heritage scrapbook pages or “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsules. You can also pass on touching, love letters to your baby or grandchild in a Baby Time Capsule from www.timecapsule.com.

Hold on to your love letters for you never know when that special person may be gone and you long to hear their voice again. Just pull out that old letter again, and it is like they are still here with you.

What could be better than a love letter from your Grandfather to your Grandmother during the war or a sweet note from your sister about your baby? Document these memoirs in a scrapbook or preserve them in a time capsule. You will regret it if you don’t.

What to Write About

A message from the heart means the most. Your letter can express appreciation from those who have significantly affected your life. Who brought special joy, pleasure, or happy memories to you? Express love, apologies, seek forgiveness, reconciliation, or use the opportunity to express unfinished business (especially if you know someone is about to pass). Please be cautious not to give the letter to someone if it may harm their health more and stress them out more. Use the letter opportunity as a means to get things off of your chest that you have held onto for years. Then put the letter in a balloon and as the movie Frozen teaches, ‘Let it Go.’

Share your hopes and good wishes, or predictions of what happens to survivors. Share your values, or what you hope your family remembers from you. What do you want your children and grandchildren to pass on into the future and never forget.

Share Wisdom

Watching my parents now raise their own grandchildren has taught me a lot. Grandchildren love to talk. Grandparents are there to listen. It is a great role to use as a grandparent and explain to your grandchildren how things work in the world, answering their questions with a great amount of patience. You can use letters to let your grandchildren know you are always there for them. Teach your grandchildren what life was like when you were born through a letter. Explain about colors, flowers, animals, or share with them experiences you have when you were their age. You can communicate to them through the love letters. Save your art projects you make with your grandchildren in their own time capsule, so when you are no longer around, they can open the time capsule and hold something tangible and remember the time spent with you making that craft together.

With so much social media available nowadays, it is even easier to track your life everyday. Record what you do on a daily basis and put it on You Tube. You could even write down in a love letter to your children or grandchildren, the links to your videos, so when your child is older he or she can go back and watch the videos to know better what life was like for you while they were growing up. What were your questions as a parent or grandparent? What were your emotions or thoughts while raising your child? If you are a parent who is not allowed to see your children currently, due to a divorce or something else, use things like social media or You Tube to record your messages of hope, advice, or words of wisdom you want to offer your child in the future. You can still teach your child, even when they seem out of reach.

So go now, even if it is only a small scrap piece of paper. Get started sharing your messages of hope, stories of unconditional love, humor, and recipes you want to keep in the family. Write them down, save them in a time capsule, or give to your loved ones today. It is the greatest gift I can think of for you to pass on to your family this Valentine’s day.

Who do you want to write a love letter to today? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

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