Summer Fun Friday

I can't believe another week of summer has already flown by!!

Here's some of the fun we've had 

(Again, please excuse the pictures.  My replace the stolen camera fund is severely lacking)

Daddy Dates

My husband has had some extra time off this week with the holiday so he took each of the kids on a date.  With my 10 year old they went to Barnes and Noble and looked through all kinds of books and she got to pick one to bring home.  My 8 year old wanted to go to the local pet store and they played with all the puppies and kitties for about 2 hours then picked up a slurpee.  He took my 6 year old to the gym at his school and they spent an hour or two playing racquetball and basketball and stopped for ice cream on the way home.  My baby (4 yrs old) just wanted to go to the zoo!  So thats what they did.  He didn't spend more than $10 on any one date (we have a zoo pass) and all of the kids felt so special!

At Home Activities

This week we had one day that was a "friend day".  I had been asked to watch a couple of friends kids at different times and we just turned it into a day of fun.  We started off with 3 friends in the morning (and one that joined us with her mom) that stayed for lunch when their mom came, then we took a little break and had 2 friends in the afternoon until just before dinner, then 3 more that joined us for dinner and fun afterwards.  I used a lot of paper plates that day!  But my kids had so much fun!  And honestly, it was much easier than having the same extra kids all day long.

Here are some of the things we did that day and throughout the week

Sidewalk Murals

I guess this is pretty self explanatory.  We used a ton of chalk, but its so cheap!

Milk Art from Flutter Flutter

These fun homemade Lava Lamps were a huge hit.  You can find the tutorial here.

And we had a dance party, of course.  It really seems like one of my kids favorite things to do.  Just crank up the tunes and dance!

Away from Home Activities

Library Day!

My kids were fascinated by the "kids" that were putting on a concert at the library when we went to claim their reading rewards.  I'm pretty sure they all want to play the violin now!

Monday was a free day at a "farm" near us.  Its run by the park district and is more a super fun place that happens to have farm animals than an actual farm, but its really cool!  They have one of the coolest playgrounds ever, a carousel, and pony and tractor rides.  They also have a historic schoolhouse, blacksmith shop and pottery shop where staff dressed in period clothing give demonstrations.  Like I said, super fun.  

And it was free!  I know in our area all the museums and such have multiple free days a year.  The biggest key is to go EARLY and choose your battles.  For some places like the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago - no amount of free is worth the headache.  But, for instance, the Museum of Science and Industry - in January - is practically empty.  The suburb free days are much more doable.  Check out your local places!

Our fun this week also included some major 4th of July celebrating!

Some Fun Food

Being the 4th of July week, most of our desserts and fun were centered around red, white, and blue.  On Thursday (the 4th) we had Patriotic Pancakes for breakfast, and had a picnic for lunch.  Dinner was BBQ, of course, with a red white and blue fruit salad (yogurt, fruit and a dollop of whipped cream) and corn on the cob.

My girls would bake every day if they could.  So I limit them to 2 desserts a week.  This week they picked

Tie-Dye Fudge from Taste and Tell

and our very own Firecracker Bundt Cake posted earlier this week by Jana

I'd say another successfully fun week of summer.  And as always - we'd love your ideas to add to our fun!