Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Winner announced! And Spring has Sprung!

Congratulations to last week's winner, Terri C.! Please contact us to claim your prize!

Don't forget that there are still three more days to enter the 100th Blog Entry Giveaway; a winner will be announced on Friday!

Many of us have had a taste recently of some really beautiful weather, which has made us very excited to finally say that spring is here at last!

With the warm weather fast approaching a continuous state, it is time to start thinking of the sunny months ahead. Because it's so hard to see these wonderful days go to waste, especially in New England where we are located, we are looking for some ideas of ways to have fun in the sun. Any interesting ideas for activities are welcome!

Share your favorite things to do this summer. Do you have any book suggestions for the beach? Any special things you do with your kids or grandkids that might be of interest to another family? Some frugal tips for vacations or snacks? Many of you work full time- how do you squeeze in some summertime into your busy lifestyle? We're all ears, and so are the other readers!

Here are some ideas that worked for my family last year:

-Field Trip Fridays: Every week, I researched free or low-cost activities in the greater community, such as art exhibits, events at local historical sites, zoos and sanctuaries, etc. and planned an activity for Friday afternoons for my children and myself. It was a low cost adventure that guaranteed at least one day a week of fun and excitement for the whole family. You could easily pick any day of the week and plan ahead to fit into your schedule. And although it sounds like just one more thing to do, we all really enjoyed exploring and adventuring. I then made a scrapbook for my kids of the places we had gone, and we collected pamphlets at each location for keepsakes. We visited Fort Knox and heard them fire cannons, we petted hissing cockroaches and stood inside a whale's skull, we visited injured birds at the bird sanctuary, we explored a lighthouse, and many other awesome and free or cheap activities.

-Pool membership passes: A local campground sold a pool membership pass for their summer season for $50.00 for the whole family. While it seemed expensive at first, it amounted to less than $10/person in our larger family, and spread out over three months, it was affordable. We often visited the pool for several hours at a time, bringing snacks or lunch, or showing up between meals or after dinner for a pre-bed time swim. The kids had a blast and were able to practice their swimming, and it gave us all something to do to cool down and get out of the house without spending big bucks each time. It was also much cheaper than water park passes!

-Visiting the ice cream shop: We would often grab a small, inexpensive soft serve cone and take a drive along the shoreline. Sometimes we even did this for dinner! Shh :)

What are you planning on doing this summer to make it memorable?

1 comment:

  1. Were doing to go to the zoo, my four yr old LOVED it last yr when he went with his school. Hoping to go to sea world. But more so we are hoping to take a trip up north to see family and friends who we haven't seen in over a yr. Gotta love military life, lol.

    Alana L. Correale
    alanis_25@mail.com

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