What Do You Do with Your Family over the Weekend?

This past weekend we went canoeing on the Tuscarawas River and then had a picnic. And on Sunday, the kids just played, and my husband and I did stuff around the house (laundry, cleaning, etc.). Not an exciting weekend, but relaxing. Sunday evening, we played Uno Attack before bed.

We try not to do TOO much all the time, because that would spoil the kids. They would come to expect something all the time. This way, when we do something different, it is special and exciting to them.

1. Sometimes we're in pjs all day and play outside in our backyard like that and do house cleaning etc
2. Sometimes we go to parks, in all kinds of weather, all year round
3. Or the zoo
4. Or the aquarium
5. Or the Children's museum
6. Or go on a family hike
7. to the beach in the summer months
8. to my in-laws house which is a 3 hour drive
9. apple picking in the fall
10. or we'll have a playdate with a friend
11. or the library
12. Or Barnes and Noble
13. Or sprinkler park
14. Swim in our own pool (just a 12 ft round above ground but it does the job!)

in AZ it is HOT. So, we are pretty much stuck indoors all summer. So we swim in our pool A LOT, do stuff around the house, run errands, hang out with friends. Did a staycation at a resort last weekend. Honeslty, sometimes life is just boring and there is not much to do. I often wonder what other people do myself.

Well, the ac is out on both cars and it's over 100 degrees here, so we were going to go to The Children's Museum... but instead we rented a movie, played games and baked cookies. On Sunday we went to church, napped, then to a friend's house for more games and more cookies. Trying to stay out of the car or heat as much as possible.

we have a new sunday ritual this summer, we go to church with my family then spend the rest of the day out at my mom's in the country. my son can play in the dirt, swim, run around, we even take the dog and she gets some really great run time. other than that, saturdays are the usual, park, big breakfast, library, movies, tv, playing, housework, whatever....

We're broke so we stay home and color, read books, watch TV, putz about in the yard, write, draw, listen to music, dance in an uncoordinated manner, take naps, talk, make up stories, ask silly questions, take walks, sit and enjoy each other's company, play card games, board games, video games, computer games etc. Going out costs money, even if it's just the gas to get to the park, so we try not to. Been like this for the past year and it's the new normal. Yesterday we filled a plastic tub with water in the back yard and my four year old daughter took her plastic horses (Pack of 6 for $8 at toys r us she got for her last birthday) and had adventures on the high seas. She chattered away at them and they back to her in a horsey falsetto of her own creation while I re-read an old favorite book that I've read twice before but have yet to tire of it. My husband sat just inside watching a show, calling out to us every so often to ask if we were having a good time and we'd simultaneously call back in affirmation before turning back to our diversions.

The weekend before that my mother was down to visit and the woman can't relax to save her own life. We had to "go out" to have fun so we spent a lot of money we didn't have so she didn't "go stir crazy" on us in our boring house. On the days we didn't go out we had to fill with arts and crafts purchased from a hobby store because store bought crafts are easier for her to deal with than trying to figure out what to do with the pile of construction paper, pipe cleaners, wood beads, macaroni, pens, crayons, glitter, chalk and other various things we already had around the house to create things with.

If you and your kids are a bit adventurous, try Geocaching! It's free, and you get to hunt for treasure and explore all around your area, or any area you're visiting.

Go to http://geocaching.com and look for hidden geocaches around your home. Register for free. It's easier if you have a GPS receiver (iPhone works), but with a little planning you can do it simply by looking things up on your computer and printing off the map and clues ahead of time. In the larger caches, there are little prizes for the kids to trade.

If it looks interesting to you, feel free to message me directly for more hints and tips. It can be harder than it looks, and if you don't find your first few it can be discouraging. But when you do find them, it's a blast!

Our Sunday afternoon ritual is family bowling. Hubby, me and the 10 year old. It started because we decided that our gas royalty checks were to be spent ONLY on something fun for the family. Our first check was $190. Not life changing money, but enough to have fun. So we bought bowling balls and bowling shoes. We go every Sunday (Only $1.50 per game)/. We make our son bowl without bumpers, and he is now breaking 100! Bowling is so much fun. You don't have to be good to have a fabulous time.

We let our daughter decide what we do. Saturday is always cleaning day, unless we have an event to go to. With everyone out and about all week, often times we just hang out at home, doing whatever. 5 days a week our lives are scheduled, so we like to keep our weekends free.

If we're not hanging/playing/cleaning/cooking/gardening around the house we like to:

swim
hike
parks
go to the coast
visit a museum (if you get a memebership it really pays for itself quickly and you get discounts at partner museums... example: Curiodessy, San Mateo :)
visit a zoo (w/ museum member discount)
hang with friends
go camping
visit family
go out for breakfast/farmer's market
Stanford campus (such a great and underutilized place to take kids on weekends!! Free museum but also just a fun place to run around or ride bikes and see interesting gardens, sculpture & architecture without a lot of people or cars -- any college campus could work ;)
And many of these ideas are free/inexpensive esp. with the family discount :)
I wish it was the weekend already!!

We usually clean house and do yard work, and sit and read the paper, and I sew, and cook, and read mamaP. This past weekend we had our grand daughters birthday party. She turned 4, and it was a big Dinosaur party. My daughter did a great job, decorating, and planning games, and made the volcano cake with hot lava. (dry ice) She made paper mache' dino eggs filled with all dino goodies and toys. She created a maze with boxes for the kids to crawl thru and it was filled with big dinos and eggs. They each had to find the eggs and had a blast. Tossed dino bean bags into the dinos roaring mouth. Won dino prizes. We helped set up and get the place ready and then of course clean up. Laid around all day Sunday trying to recoup. And had a couple cupcakes. Most of the time our weekends are no big deal, but this was. Think I will put up the picture of the cake if anyone wants to see..check my profile. (o: