Summer Activities On The Go

My boys like to be on the move. Staying home every day isn't an option. We need to get out of the house for some fun. Otherwise sibling arguments start up about every little thing. You know how it goes. Not to mention I need to get out of the house. I thought I would share some information about some of the things we are doing to mix it up.
Another Mom told me about this on the last day of school. Go to http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/ and click on your state for find bowling centers near you who participate in this program. There is an on line registration to sign up your children. For kids up to the age of 18 (I think that was the age limit). Parents can sign up for a special deal where they pay $23 for a pass for up to 4 adults to bowl with the kids all summer (up to 2 free games a day). The only thing you do have to pay for (and they don't make this clear) is for the shoe rental. Anybody know where I can buy used bowling shoes cheap?The other thing we are doing is Summer Movie Fun at Harkins Theaters. Go to http://www.harkinstheaters.com/ to see if there is one near you. They have $2 movies every morning and the same movie runs for a week. All of the movies are G or PG rated. Here in Tucson, we have another theater that also does the $2 movies. Check your local theaters, even the dollar theaters they may have a similar deal. Last Wed was my son's Birthday so I splurged and got the kids the concession combos as a special treat. Other wise I usually stop by the dollar store and pick up some candies to snack on in the movie. Shhhhh...... don't let the theater people know. I get the same big boxes of Mike and Ikes for $1 that the theaters want something like $3 or $4 for.

We also take a trip over to a HUGE used book store we have in town. It rivals Barnes and Noble, just with out the coffee shop. They have activities for the kids one morning each week. Each location has their activities on a different day. That way you can hit them all if you like. They also tend to have different activities at each one so if you do go to them all in one week you won't be doing the same activity.

We have a favorite pool we like to go swimming at. It costs me $1 and the kids $0.25 each to get in. NICE!!! The other great thing about this pool is the HUGE canopy over the entire pool. See the above picture. They also have their swim lesson at this pool.

On the right where the cones are is a kidney shaped current area. The red tube over the top there has water that cascades down in a sheet of water. There is also another fountain jet that sprays water out over the people swimming along int he current.

Where the life guards are standing on the left is a beach entry into the pool. Behind them at the edge there are six jets of water that spray straight up like geysers. Then the 4 brightly colored tubes just to the right of the life guards all have different kinds of water sprays coming down from them when they are on. These pictures were taken just before swim lessons were scheduled to begin.

We also have a membership to the Children's Museum. The boys never tire of going there.

Usually we have a membership to the Zoo as well. At this time we have let it expire, but are planning to renew the next time we go. They have a little train out front that the boys like to ride. Usually we buy a pass for that as well.

Another thing that I do for all this running around is I have a cooler in the van. I found that when I put a cool pack in the cooler it sweats and everything gets wet inside the cooler. So I put a kitchen towel on the bottom of the cooler. Another thing that I do is put some juice pouches in the freezer. So as we are heading out I throw a few of them in the bottom of the cooler, under some that aren't frozen. I also put packs of peanuts or pretzels in there as well. Some times we are out and about close to meal times and the kids are hungry. So I keep something to tide them over till we get home and can eat. For us stopping at a fast food place isn't really an option. At fast food places, my oldest can only have a burger patty (no bun) and ketchup with fresh fruit and a drink. The fries are out because they fry them with the breaded stuff and they have dairy in some of them. He loves fries. I just can't order for one and not the other. It isn't fair to flaunt it in his face so we don't eat fast food when he is with us.