Fun & Fairly Free!!!

[MomofCKJ]

We love to go Letterboxing. Fun, you are outdoors and free! Check out www.letterboxing.org to find places in your area where Letterboxes are hidden. My kids love it, a real treasure hunt!

Allyson

 

[Suzimom]

I'm the OP and have been away with my new year at school starting...so I'm just now catching up from over a week ago! Thanks for everyone's ideas!!! We'll certainly try them...I love the highs/lows to keep in touch with what's happening. DS just started middle school, & I'm finding that he's doing AWESOME but is eager to talk (yea!!) more than he did in elementary about what's happening. Of course, I'm more curious since middle school is beyond my elementary teaching experience...now I'm just a parent!!!

DS11 did a wonderful thing for us recently (and he's done it a few times before)! For DH and my 17th anniversary (which was on 8-8-08 -- opening of the Olympics), he ran us upstairs, cleaned the living room, kitchen, and dining area, decorated the table, and made and served dinner for us!!! We had a sweet-sour stir fry from his kid's cookbook which he made us eat with chopsticks!!! He even dressed up for dinner for us!!! It was so sweet!!!! I gave him a $20 bill when we went grocery shopping -- he went his way & I went mine...he ordered me to find a "good wine for Asian food." He found everything he needed, checked out on his own, and was waiting for me at the entrance with change!! I'm working to train the young lad, friends!!

Please keep those wonderful ideas coming!!

 

[lovesmurfs]

I'm the OP and have been away with my new year at school starting...so I'm just now catching up from over a week ago! Thanks for everyone's ideas!!! We'll certainly try them...I love the highs/lows to keep in touch with what's happening. DS just started middle school, & I'm finding that he's doing AWESOME but is eager to talk (yea!!) more than he did in elementary about what's happening. Of course, I'm more curious since middle school is beyond my elementary teaching experience...now I'm just a parent!!!

DS11 did a wonderful thing for us recently (and he's done it a few times before)! For DH and my 17th anniversary (which was on 8-8-08 -- opening of the Olympics), he ran us upstairs, cleaned the living room, kitchen, and dining area, decorated the table, and made and served dinner for us!!! We had a sweet-sour stir fry from his kid's cookbook which he made us eat with chopsticks!!! He even dressed up for dinner for us!!! It was so sweet!!!! I gave him a $20 bill when we went grocery shopping -- he went his way & I went mine...he ordered me to find a "good wine for Asian food." He found everything he needed, checked out on his own, and was waiting for me at the entrance with change!! I'm working to train the young lad, friends!!

Please keep those wonderful ideas coming!!

Wow. Does he rent out? My DS14 once (I should have scrapbooked it!) cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom. When he was finished, he flopped on the sofa, declaring that he was beat, and "Do you always feel this way after cleaning, Mom?" Thought it was a teachable moment, but he's never been so inclined again.

DH is taking DS14 to a Christian rock concert at the local university -- it's free. If you have colleges/universities, I'd check their calendars for freebees, too.

 

[sameyeyam]

Instead of an expensive Labor Day weekend trip we are staying near home and doing some fun, cheap things.

Saturday - fishing at a nearby river.

Sunday - swimming at a water park that has a Sunday afternoon special - admission for entire family for $24.

Monday - hiking on a 5 mile trail at a park about 20 miles away that we've never been to. Has a couple of waterfalls and we will pack lunch in our backpacks.

 

[FFerret]

Ex.

Ratatouille- french food (and yes I made a little Ratatouille too!) We had souffle(the kids loved that !!)

Sound of Music-we stretched it a little and made fondue

Little Mermaid- We had an under the sea theme- (I got free clam shells from the fish market and filled them with the rice that went along with our fish(and I also made chicken strips for the non-fish eaters and we called it chicken of the sea)

Just be creative. I do try to decorate the table too- not too hard with the kid movies.

Wizard of Oz. We had a "picnic" out of a basket like Dorothy had. And dessert was emerald city(a cake decorated to look like emerald city- not too hard I used ice cream cones to make it look very castley- and used edible glitter and green food coloring to tint it.

First pick a movie then work around it. We watched bend it like beckham and had Indian food. (which I don't think my kids would have eaten without the movie lol and they found some things they enjoyed)

Mulan- Chinese food obviously.

It just makes a regular movie a little more special.

There is a show on tv that gave me the idea- they do more adult movies and get very involved meals -

We get nachos from Taco Bell every now and then and watch NACHO LIBRE. The movie at first didn't do much for me, but Mr. FFerret enjoyed it so much it's kind of grown

 

[wiigirl]

We love to go Letterboxing. Fun, you are outdoors and free! Check out www.letterboxing.org to find places in your area where Letterboxes are hidden. My kids love it, a real treasure hunt!

Allyson

 

[MomToOne]

A few years ago, we had a hot spell that made it impossible to leave air conditioning after about 10am. It went on for days and DD - then about 8 or 9 - was starting to go stir crazy and that in turn was driving ME crazy. We had to get outside to burn off some steam. So I came up with the idea of a "breakfast picnic". We headed out to the park about 8:30am, with hard boiled eggs, donuts, fruit and orange juice. We had a blast enjoying the park while it was still cool enough. It's now become a family tradition to do this a few times each summer.

ETA: Just noticed this is an ancient thread brought back to life. Oh well.

 

[Ginny Favers]

I love zombies.

It seems like every town near us has a Community Day during the summer. We went to ours last year and I was shocked at all the fun free things there were for kids. Local businesses were just giving things like t-shirts and food away, there were bounce houses, and magicians, face painters, caricature artists, rides-- you would have thought we were at Disney with how excited the kids were.

 

[Dayton Flyer]

Braiiiiiiiiins!

 

[crazelion]

Braiiiiiiiiins!