As you can probably tell from our lack of blog posts we’ve either been really busy or really lazy. I’m going with busy. Oddly we spend our time from May-July designing for Christmas. We’ve recently completed about 100 new Christmas cards for various stationery sites. I finally am taking a breather and enjoying the summer. I love summer when the kids are off of school, no more field trip forms, checks for yearbooks or geography projects. But sometimes it is hard to come up with something to do with the kids that does not involve lots of money. We love going to the beach, movies and amusement parks but between gas, parking, food and activities it is usually a $100 day. So until we win the lottery we have to fill most of our days with fun cheap activities.

Here are a few of the things we like doing:

1. Swimming – my kids love swimming and want to swim everyday. Luckily my parents live down the street and have a pool. Bring some popsicles and let the kids swim for a couple of hours. Most cities have public pools that you can join for the summer for a reasonable cost.

2. Park – try a new park and bring lots of snacks, water and packed lunches. You can also bring your scooters or bikes for even more fun.

3. Go for a hike – we are lucky to live next to a beautiful park. Go early so it is not too hot.

4. Lemonade stand – My daughter and her friends decided to raise money to go see One Direction. They set up their stand by the library and also sold cookies. They made $45 already.

5. Crafts – Whenever I am at the craft store I pick up a few items to add to our craft closet. We love making jewelry together and painting. Whenever there is a sale on canvases we always pick up a bunch. You do not have to be a great artist just pick some fun colors and go for it. Remember art is in the eye of the beholder.

6. Baking – This is a really fun activity for everyone. My son and his girlfriend just made chocolate chip cookies using the hershey’s recipe. They used an ice cream scoop to make all of the cookies uniform in size. Sugar cookies and cupcakes are also fun since you can decorate them. Kids can even help with lunch and dinner.

7. Read – When my kids were younger we picked a long book or series to read together. We loved The Spiderwick Series and Huckleberry Finn. Remind your kids that before tv kids played with sticks and dead bugs and had fun!

8. Take a walk – We live about a mile from the shopping center so taking a walk with the dogs to Starbucks or Baskin Robbins is always a fun treat.

9. Eat every meal outside – Yesterday we had hot dogs for lunch sitting outside. Eating outside makes the food taste better!

10. Take a nap – It is summer after all, no homework, no school projects just long warm days. 🙂

What are some of your favorite summer activities?