A lot of moms have come to me asking how I get the latest scoop on all of the free things to do around town this summer. The truth is that I made a summer bucket list for my kids and I and we are sticking too it. A while back ago I read an article about having a “1970 summer” or something like that. I honestly do not remember too much from this article, but II do remember the author basically saying let your kids have fun. Let your kids play in the water all day, we will worry about that ear infection later. Eat all of the artificial dyes and junk you want. Have fun, don’t kill yourself trying to make homemade applesauce squeeze pouches like you always do. Go out early, come home late, nap and love life. So thats my mantra for this summer, just have fun and live life. So back to the bucket list, I have complied an entire calendar full of activities to keep up busy at little to no cost this summer. I am going to give you the tools so you can do this as well. I do not want to just sit here and compile one giant list of all the things that are happening in our town, I want you to go and find what would be fun for you and your littles, make your own bucket list.
So one of the ways I stay connected on whats going on is I follow all of the local places on Facebook. Think about your area and what kinds of places you normally take your kids or places that you wouldn’t normally take them but know you can. Basically all of your local fast food places, pools and parks, kids play places, places like that you need to be following on Facebook and sign up for their Email list. Make sure you type in the name of the place you want to follow and then your zip code, otherwise you may be following a Chic-Fil-A four towns over. Some places to follow in specific are Home Depot and Lowes, they do a free kids build once or twice a month. Follow your local City Hall, Chamber of Commerce, and Parks and Rec. Follow Chic-Fil-A, Toys R-us, Whole Foods/Central Market, your local library children’s program. These are just the ones off of the top of my head, they are constantly posting and Emailing to keep you updated on all of the fun. You may have to sign up for some of these mailing lists, I know some people refuse to taint their inboxes with that nonsense, but sometimes you have to do it.
**You do not have to stay local. Start local and then move on to cities you wouldn’t mind driving to/can afford to drive to normally. I like the two towns on opposite sides of me, we do a lot of activities there.**
Look for reading programs. A lot of local libraries do a summer reading program which is completely free and you do not have to be a member of the library to attend. You get a check list of things to do for babies and books to read for bigs, they do a weekly book reading and program for the kids. At the end if you turn in your reading log your child will be entered to win some prizes. At our local library your kids can be entered to win a Kids Kindle Fire! HEB does a reading program as well and your kid gets a free T shirt.
Basically, your trying to find fun ways to take up the majority of the day that doesn’t cost a lot and then you can go home and your kids take an amazing nap. You will be driving a lot more than you may already so you need to counter that with little to no cost for your fun and food. Gatti Land, for instance, moms eat free on Mondays. Kids 2 and under eat free so my kids can eat free, I can eat free, and then I buy $10 to go play. Its super cheap and I can drag it out to take forever. If you want your summer fun to be cheap than your going to have to look for deals and look holes like that and make it work to your advantage. My favorite thing right now is that the local pool is $2 for people over 5 and you can bring your own food, super cheap for us. To really drag out my experience I do a little research on the place were going to the night before and try to learn all about the different amenities and free things they offer. On Sundays every museum in Austin has free admission, so when we go to the Bob Bullock museum we take a little longer in the parking garage counting stuff and talking about colors, we play on the statue upfront. Taking an hour to get inside of a place may sound horrible to some, but to me that’s an hour were not sitting at home bored out of our minds. There are a bunch of ways to “drag out” your summer fun that really are just teaching moments.
Try to pack your lunch as much as possible. You definitely do not want to go into this summer trying to “just eat lunch there”, every now and then is fine. You will end up spending a ton on gas and then a ton on food and that’s such a horrible habit to teach your kids. I hate packing my lunch but if I keep switching it up I find that I don’t bored so fast, and when I do get bored I just eat out, then pack my lunch next time. Try to factor in how long you will be there vs. the appetite of the kid vs. activity they are doing and pack snacks accordingly. I always pack at least one bottle of water for us to all share. I collect quarters regularly (they are everywhere) and keep them in a play doh container in my bag to buy bottled water there if we need it. Why a play doh container? So when I put bills in there they won’t get wet, its tiny and discrete and no one will ever suspect there’s money in your play doh. I have also almost ruined my new wallet bringing it to the pool. To add on to this thought, I have one giant “summer” bag that I empty as soon as I put the kids down for nap, hang in the closet, and then its ready to be packed up the next time we go out. I keep bug spray and sun block at the bottom of the bag at all times, I have showed up to too many events not knowing they would be out doors and almost burnt my babies!
One big thing that I do want to shed some light on is that Schulman Theatres Lost Pines 8 does a fifty cent movie every Tuesday this summer at 10 am. They are playing some of my kids favorite movies, and they do a raffle and give away prizes before the movie. When we went to see Despicable Me 2 I brought our Minion blanket and a stuffed animal for each kid, I also brought in a coloring sheet from the theaters coloring contest so when they got bored half way through they could color. The biggest thing about this is that all proceeds go to the Boys and Girls club, which the movie theater has let them use an entire room in the back of the theater to host their meetings. That is so cool. So not only are they raising money for the boys and girls club they are letting them do amazing work right there in the back of the building. If you go I encourage you to sign up and volunteer, even just once, or maybe give a donation.
Last, my least favorite way to have fun this summer is hit the dollar stores. Kites, Frisbees, water toys, sidewalk chalk. you can find so many easy ways to occupy your kids for just a dollar. The trick is to stock up on a lot of different stuff and make one item the activity for the morning. Buy a kite, go fly it at the park while stalling. This could easily take a few hours and then you kids can go play on the play ground. Pinterest is your best friend, you can find uses for these cheap items that you would of never thought of. Dollar tree and Five Below are your best friend. Dig deep into your childhood summers. What made them so great? Find out what it was and make that your summer traditions. I went and bought Fritos and bean dip, pop cicles that screw up your mouth on the sides, we are always in the water because I remember living in the lake, we are looking up my favorite kid cartoons on Youtube, those are some of the things that made my childhood summers.
Somehow through keeping a tight connection with all of this my calendar is full. We have not had one “stay at home” day this summer AND my husband doesn’t want to kill me for spending all of our money. So if I can do it you can too momma. Since I was lazy and will not be posting a big master list of all things coming up, I will post the links to the websites so you can get yourself set up.
https://bastrop.schulmantheatres.com/family-game-night
https://lowesbuildandgrow.com/clinics
http://www.elginpubliclibrary.org/kids-teens/children-s-programs.html
http://www.elgintx.com/270/Morris-Memorial-Pool
https://www.heb.com/static-page/article-template/H-E-Buddy-Reading-Club
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Events
HippyLife 