Tag Archives: Pinterest

Mompiphany #20: 30 Affordable Things To Do This Summer

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Flip Flops, Blue

Flip Flops, Blue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you don’t have any ideas of what you and your kids will be doing this summer, you are screwed. I know I sound dramatic, but I think it is fair to say that 10+ weeks home with kids who are bored could be akin to mommy waterboarding.  Although there are a few more weeks of school (Praise Jesus!), I have begun thinking of things that my kids and I can do this summer.

In the past I have been able to take advantage of a summer filled with full-day camps but now that I am staying at home with the kids, their summer will be a mix of a couple of weeks of camp, our annual family vacation, pool time and road trips.  That sounds like a lot of activity but I know that there will be quite a bit of downtime in between all of the things that we already have planned, and in my house downtime is the devil’s workshop.

So, I have been researching ideas for easy, affordable summertime activities (Pinterest is especially helpful), and have come up with 30 activities that I plan to do w/ my kids this summer:

1. Let the kids make a lemonade stand.  This is a rite of passage for any kiddie-preneur.

2. Have the kids wash the cars.  A hose and some sponges could keep my kids busy all day and happens to kill 2 birds with 1 clean stone.

3. Plan to see all family members who are within driving distance of our home.  We plan to take roadtrips to Chicago and Boston this summer to visit family.

4. Picnic at the park. The kids love this, and I don’t have to clean the kitchen. Win-win.

5. Paint our driveway with sidewalk paint made from water, cornstarch, and food coloring.

6. Commit to going to the library once a week and create our own summer reading program.  The award at the end of the reading program is an ice cream sundae party for a few friends.

7. Pen pal with friends. This is especially good for my 5 year old who will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and could use some practice writing sentences.

8. Purge old toys and have the kids run a “yard sale” with other neighborhood kids to swap.

9. Eat ice cream for dinner and have dinner for dessert.

10.Let the kids watch as much TV as they want all day,  especially perfect on a hot or rainy day.  This could go down in history as the best day of my kids’ lives.

12. Let the kids do sibling sleepovers.  For some reason, the kids love sleeping together (unless they have to), and this is a lot cheaper than sleep-away camp.

13. Do absolutely nothing (not sure how the kids will like this but it sounds good to me!).

14. Make a list of local museums and try to visit all of them.

15. Give the garbage men and mail man popsicles (for some reason my kids love to do this.)

16. Ride bikes to nearby parks.

17. Visit Daddy at work for impromptu lunches (and maybe drop the kids off with him for the rest of the day?????).

18. Turn the sprinklers on and let the kids enjoy their very own water park.

19. Ask them what they want to do (novel idea, right?).  We are going to sit down and create a list of all of the things that the kids want to do and we will check them off as we go along.

20. Check out a baseball game (major, minor, little, any league).

21. Make a list of local parks that we have not been to yet and try to go to them.

22. Plant something and pray that it makes it out alive.

23. Make homemade ice-cream sandwiches.

24. Do all of the free activities within a 30 mile radius of our home (usually listed in our local newspaper).

25. Move the cars out of the garage and let the kids decorate the garage floor with sidewalk chalk and paint.

26. Go to the pool… a lot.

27. Schedule play dates.

28. Go to movie matinees.

29. Create a star of the week.  Let the kids take turns being the “star.”  That child gets to pick some of the activities for the week, etc.

30. Be thankful that my kids even want to spend the summer hanging out with me, because I am sure when they are teenagers this will definitely not be the case.

What are your your families plan this summer? Let me know. I am always up for adding a few more to-do’s to our list.

Mompiphany #14: Sometimes Pinterest Is Wrong

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Each year teacher appreciation week stresses me out. I am sure it is not meant to be stressful, but it is.  There is no gift that I could ever afford to buy that could adequately thank my children’s teachers for being patient enough to teach them their ABC’s,and  forgiving enough to still smile at them after my child has been a HOT mess all day.  Teachers are the unsung heroes of the world, and teachers, I don’t care how much you love the art of teaching, there is probably one child and one parent who make you completely rethink your profession and wish that you had opted to be something else instead.

Anyway, my kids’ preschool school take teacher appreciation week seriously, as they should, but I always feel stressed. What should I buy?  Should I make something? Should I bake something? If I get a gift card, how much should it be for? If I don’t get the teachers anything will my child be black balled?

My gut said to take my usual approach  –  to take the easy and safe route and give gift cards.  But, this year, with the lovely introduction of Pinterest in my life, I decided that I was going to get inspired and make something from the heart. So I scoured Pinterest for hours and decided that I was going to whip up some water bottles and include  teacher candy like smarties, skittles (the color of the rainbow), and M&Ms.  What teacher would not love this?  I dragged the kids to Michael’s with about15 coupons and purchased cute water bottles, Pinterest-approved tags, and ribbons, and then I dragged them to Target for the candy.  I hauled all of this mess home, started assembling the water bottles, and then it hit me: Teachers don’t want a water bottle filled with kid candy.  Shoot, I wouldn’t want that either.  Of course, I think teachers are honored to be appreciated but what they probably really want is a kid who washes their hands after using the bathroom, a child who stays home if they have hand foot and mouth, and a child whose parents are smart enough and practical enough to get a gift card.

Lesson learned:  From now on, I will get my kids’ teachers gift cards from stores I know they will enjoy.  Take that, Pinterest!