Summertime Fun

{Thursday's By Tara} - A Thursday ritual. A featured post written by Tara; simple, special, extraordinary moments in soaping and life.

I wanted to share with you a sampling of some of the fun we had this summer.

My hubby spent a whole week at Cub Scout camp with 3 of our boys.

They learned pocket knife and bb gun safety, practiced archery,

and even got to watch a real jousting tournament!

We started out our summer by going to our local Memorial Day parade.

We started this family tradition a few years ago and it's a very special

and meaningful day for our whole family.

My two oldest boys attempted to climb the Alpine ropes tower at our local YMCA.

It was a little scary, though!

We had a blast celebrating my oldest son's 9th birthday with a fishing party!

Our Family Vacation

{Thursday's By Tara} - A Thursday ritual. A featured post written by Tara; simple, special, extraordinary moments in soaping and life.

The many adventures of The Jackson family on vacation.

We recently returned from our 2 week vacation to the mountains.  It is quite an adventure taking 4 little boys, 2 parents, and 2 grandparents on a 13 hour road trip.   

  

Our first stop was in Blue Ridge, GA where we stayed in a log cabin that sits directly on a beautiful river that is in the center of all the tubing, kayaking, and fishing fun.   My boys spent the days hiking up the river with their poppy and daddy and then tubing back down to our cabin.  They enjoyed fishing also, although they didn't have much luck catching our dinner!  We enjoyed hiking, but with a 20 month old along for the trip, it ended up being a 1 time thing.

We made a stop in Pigeon Forge to celebrate my oldest son's 9th birthday at the Smoky Mountain Knife works and Bass Pro Shops.  He went through the pocket knife safety course at Cub Scout camp this summer, so he was prepared for getting a brand new  pocket knife!

Our last stop was in Sapphire, NC to stay at my grandfather's cabin for a few days.  My family has been visiting there since I was 2 years old, so it’s a huge treat to be able to take my own kids their now.   We took a few day trips, and we spent a whole day in Hendersonville, NC.  If you have never been there before, it is a neat little town that you should definitely visit.  They have a beautiful downtown shopping area that features a throwback soda shop, an awesomely delicious bakery that bakes everything from scratch, an entertaining toy store that allowed my kids to touch and play with anything (which is always a good thing), and a huge general store called Mast General.  The streets are lined with bears dressed up to represent different stores and local organizations.  My boys made a game out of posing with each bear along the way!

I hope that everyone is able to enjoy some time with your own families this summer, whether on a road trip or just staying at home.
Where has your summer taken you?

Free and Fun Summer Activities For Kids

{Thursday's By Tara} - A Thursday ritual. A featured post written by Tara; simple, special, extraordinary moments in soaping and life.

25 Free (or cheap) and Fun activities to entertain your kids this summer!
1.  Visit a local library and pick up a calendar of the children’s activities for the summer.
2.  Bake cookies and deliver them to a local fire station, they are usually more than happy to give the kids a quick tour and even let them sit in the fire truck.
3.  Take a swim in the local pool or splash park.  These place usually only charge a few dollars for a whole day of fun and leave you with tired kids.
4.  Make homemade play dough.
5.  Hook up a cheap garden sprinkler in the yard for hours of fun.
6.  Play at the local park.
7.  Have a theme day (ex. Wacky Wednesday).
8.  See a Dollar movie almost all theatres have the promotion going over the summer).
9.  Make a fort in the living room and pretend to be pirates, explorers, or even knights.
10.  Have PJ day.  Watch movies, eat popcorn, and most importantly stay in the those PJ’s all day!
11.  Bake a cake or cookies!  My kids love to bake with mom (or dad).
12.  VOLUNTEER!  Whether it’s the local food bank, a clothes closet, or at the local animal shelter you will leave feeling awesome and will have taught the kids an important lesson.
13.  Connect with other moms and plan fun days at each other’s houses.
14.  Be a tourist in your own town and go to a museum or park that you have never been to.

We visited a local science museum that we had never been to.  My boys loved getting to try out all of the experiments and hands on activities.
15.  Have a water balloon fight.
16.  Drive-in theatre (if you have one near you, they are cheap and so much fun for the kids).
17.  Freeze dance (play music and dance like crazy, when the music stops the last one dancing is out).
18.  Make a dream book.  Using magazines, let the children cut out photographs and draw pictures of things they’d like to have someday, places they’d like to go, careers they’d like to have one day and glue them into a dream book.  
19.  Make your own Popsicles.
20.  Jump rope.
21.  Join a summer reading program at your library or at Borders, Barnes & Noble.
22.  Have a scavenger hunt around the house.  Just make a list of things that you each have to find and the first one to collect all the items gets to pick the next activity.
23.  Go bowling.  Places like AMF offer free bowling for kids over the summer.

This is my oldest son at one of our first bowling trips. We used our free passes and all 3 kids bowled for free that day.
24.  Have a spelling bee at home.  Let the kids show off some new words they learned in school this year!
25.  Most importantly HAVE FUN!
I love to just take it easy and enjoy the free time with my kids over the summer. Stay up late and sleep in. And, remember to take a day or two to do absolutely nothing, just let the kids run wild and use their imaginations! If you're really brave and want to try all of these here’s an idea. Print out the list and cut each thing out. Then put them in a jar and have the kids pick a new one each day and that’s what they get to do!
So, which one will you try out first?