How To Have A Great Family Weekend!

So the weekend looked like this : My brother was coming to town for a bike event with both of his kids is tow (ages 12 & 14). What do we do? How do we make sure the four boys won't destroy our home?

This is how a little planning made for a great weekend!

Friday Night -
They arrive and we already have the sleeping arrangements figured out. That's step one. One of my kids are going to have to give up their bed for the weekend, so we turn the upstairs into a large campground. We head out for our favorite wing joint for dinner and everybody is happy!

Saturday-
Luckily, our bike ride is set for an early start. The house is still very much asleep when we depart, this means Grandma will only have to worry about breakfast as we will be home shorty after that. After a couple of hours of destroying ourselves on our bikes we return home in time to start working on lunch. Once the kids are fed we are off to a local swimming place that takes us back in time. (It's a lake that acts like a pool) The kids thoroughly enjoy the the lake and are also thoroughly wore out when we leave. Grandma has volunteered for dinner duty this evening and we time it perfectly and arrive home with just enough time to get cleaned up before dinner. After dinner the house is relatively quiet after a day of fun.

Sunday
Another bike event this morning, a short ride while the house is relatively quiet and still. Once that is over the task of packing the car back up, searching the house for left items encompasses our time before we are off to lunch before they leave.

A little planning can make for an enjoyable weekend with four boys in the house.

What are some tricks that you use to make family weekends go well?