Summer Fun

I am part of an awesome, local mom's group on Facebook. Those ladies are really some of the sweetest more helpful ladies I know. Even when we don't see eye to eye on parenting issues it is, for the most part, a low drama group of women who genuinely seek to lift one another up. The past few weeks there have been a LOT of posts about things to do with kiddos that are free or low cost.  I thought, to make life easier for them, I would compile the ideas here so there are all in one place. If you aren't local a lot of these may not work for you, but this may at least give you an idea of things to look for near you!



Low Cost:

Morning Movies at Movies Ten. Their movie list can be found here.

Morning Movies at Regal Movie Theater. Their movie list can be found here.

Free Kids Bowling at AMF bowling ally. (I have this on the cheap list since you still have to rent shoes).

Sheetz for slushies. (You can get the small ones for $0.99 with a sheets card)

 



 

Free (or close to free depending on what you have around the house)

Splash ground at Riverside Park

Interactive fountain at River Front Park.

Sprinklers in the yard.

Kiddie pool in the yard.

Squirt Gun Fight.

Make Popsicles

Construction paper, a magazine, and a glue stick will keep kids busy for HOURS!

Glow stick bath.

Play Dough out side (way easier to clean up)

Make a tent in the back yard (or front yard, or basement)

Make no bake (or preacher) cookies.

Barnes and Nobles has a children story hour every Wednesday at 11:00 am and Friday at 7:00 pm.

Go to the Library.

Pick a topic and learn everything you can about it.

Finger paint in the bathtub.

Fill up buckets with water and let them splash around/paint the side wall or deck ect.

Draw with Chalk.

Blow bubbles.

Make cards to send to family.



 

Special Occasion Ideas

If you are looking for something a bit more exciting, but still some what reasonable, most of these activities can be done for less then $10.00 per person.

Splash Valley Water Park in Roanoke.

Amazement Square in Lynchburg. (Hint check out The Clutch Guide for a 2 for 1 coupon!)

Hill Cats Game. (Their web site if FULL of discounts including kids club which allows kids to attend all 70 home games for free, as well as dollar pizza nights and Half Price Tuesdays.)

Mill Mountain Zoo.

Fun Center Putt Putt.

Funquest (Has tons of specials on roller skating, the indoor jungle gym, and laser tag all summer including a Christian Music night and $1.99 Mondays)

Bounce About.

 

*Be Sure to join Groupon. Typically you can get



 

READ!!!!

Join the Dig Into Reading program.

Read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and make cookies.

Read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and make muffins.

Read a book about Johny Apple Seed and eat apples (or color apples or something with apples).

A great list of books to read to your daughters this summer from Virginia Sole Smith. (I must also add the Betsy Tacy books to this list if you haven't read them to your little girl yet it MUST go on your summer reading list)

Ten books to read to your 4-7 year old by Sarah Bessey.

Check out Our Cultivated Life for a tutorial on how to make you own summer reading board game!

 

Pinterest

Here are just a few links I discovered on Pinterest that sounded like fun!

Sewing Cards by Handmade Charlotte

My entire pinboard of printable paper dolls.

These Sponge Balls  by One Charming Party so sound much better than waterballons!

 

Make Your Summer Bucket List

These are few of my favorite fill in yourself bucket lists available for printing at home to fill out with your own ideas.

Bugs Bucket List

Simple Bucket List

Summer Schedule Ideas

Color Your Own Bucket List

Summer Bingo Board (Great for vacation)

 

One other thing I always do is give my kids each a note book at the start of the summer. For older kids this is a great way for them to keep track of their summer adventures. For mine (4 and 5) it turns into more of a place for them to put stickers and glue stuff, but it still helps keep them busy.

I'm still working on setting our summer schedule and bucket list. Abi just got out of school and most schools don't get out till tomorrow so I'm giving myself a week or two to figure it out. But once I do, I'll be sure to share what we are doing this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

Bush Gardens

Most of our anniversary trip to Williamsburg was spent at Bush Gardens. We planned to go do some of the Colonial Willamsburg stuff but never got around to it. Chances are we will be coming back regularly though so next time. :) Thought I would share a few pictures of our time (though I didn't take many.)

Me trying to win a Kindle Fire at the arcade. We actually have it five times and then it dropped. Was a fun experience though so worth the money.

 

 

 

 

 

Josh at the breakfast place we stopped at on Sunday. One of I think 5 waffle/pancake places we saw.

Yummy candy purchased in downtown Williamsburg.

 

The cute Converse All Star shoes we bought. Sorta of Chuck Taylors meet ballet flats! 

Anniversary Food.

Josh and I love to eat. Probably a bit to much to be honest. We have a few favorite chain restaurants but what we really love is local places. On our recent trip to Williamsburg we staid at a nice hotel walking distance from down town Williamsburg. Our first night there we decided to walk to dinner despite the rain. We took the big umbrella and at first it wasn't that bad. As the rain picked up and the hour got later we got desperate though so we ducked into the closest place. One look at the menu was enough to send me running. Non of the food looked familiar and frankly the prices scared me. But Josh talked me into stay and we had some amazing food!!

Our yummy bread platter with cornbread, pretzel bread and herb bread paired with three dipping sauces. So yummy!

Duck breast with mushroom bread pudding and some other stuff. (Real descriptive I know!) I hate mushrooms and even I had to admit the the bread pudding was amazing. 

My pork shank ossobucco  with whipped potatoes and cucumbers. This stuff fell off the bone literally. The potatoes were so smooth and the gravy just a touch sweet. The cucumbers were... odd? I prefer my cucumbers ice cold with vinegar so slightly warm with gravy was iffy for me. But I would still go back and order this again. Someday. :)

Add a couple of white Russians and a bay leaf lemon drop and it was quite an experience.  Sitting in the beautiful restaurant while the rain poured down and we laughed and tried new things was an unexpected, unique way to kick off an anniversary trip.

Let's Go to the Fair

Friday night we headed to the Salem County Fair. I loved the fair of as a kid and have fun memories as a child and teen going with friends and family. I was so excited to take my kids! The Salem fair is an open gate fair and has free parking which means getting in costs nothing. Granted you can spend a fortune once you get in, but we were able to it pretty cheap.

Personally I was most excited about the exhibits, but was rather dissapointed in those. Nothing like the one back home, but all in all we still had a good time. We bought twenty tickets and took the girls on their first ferris wheel  ride.

As you can see Maddie loved it!

Abi's favorite part was the free petting zoo. We got to see and touch all kinds of animals. We even got to see two baby goats that were less than 24 hours old. So sweet.

We gave each of the kids ten dollars to spend on food or junk or games. But is started raining to we skipped out early and hit up Sweet Frog for dinner. All in all a summer highlight.

What have some of your summer highlights been so far?