FREE Fun Family/Date Ideas

With the economic difficulties we have all had the pleasure of enduring the last few years, our family has come up with some great fun things we like to do together that I thought my friends and family could enjoy. We have done or tried all the following:

Dates for Free

1) Go to Hallmark/or Grocery Store; pick out a card you would like to give your significant other....give about 5/10 min and meet at the back of the store; exchange cards, kiss, and then go put em back. If there are flowers, pick out the ones you would like to give her and have her smell them, then put em back and then go home!! :)

2) Take a nice stroll in your favorite park and watch the sun set. If you have a phone, put your favorite song on it and dance in the middle of the park! Bring some conversation starters with you...there are all kinds online: http://www.conversationstarters.com/101.htm (I love this one!!)

3) We ask for gift cards to Loews, Regal, Restaurants, ect. for Christmas/Birthdays and then have gift card dates, when we need to get away and don't have the cash!

Family Fun Times:
(With >3 yr olds)

1) Create your own photo studio in your living room and have fun capturing all the different faces of your little person.

2) Playing with toys...it is fun to channel your inner baby!! When Rachel was about 2 I would set up the scene of all her Little People/Polly Pockets/Barbies and then let her use her imagination...I was really good at setting the scenes up. My mom suggested that you could have her act out a story from a book and assign the people names, but never got the patience, or the book to do that.

3) Create an indoor beach....get in your swimsuits, sunglasses, beach balls, and beach music. Imagine the sun is shining inside as you kick the ball around, bask in the sun. Read a beachy story, look at the shells you had picked up once upon a time. Or visit your local Craft store for containers of shells.

4) Arts and Crafts day! Take Paper and make Paper Dolls, or Snowflakes, color, draw, make hats, or musical instruments. I always seem to have paper...and color crayons or markers. Paper plates make great tambourines! Popcycle Sticks are great to have around, I think I bought 200 for $10.00 or less. Also Paper bags...they are good puppets. My mom had the kids make Sock Puppets out of mismatch socks that they colored.

5) Dollar Store Rocks! One year for Christmas we were dirt poor so we did a Dollar Store Christmas. We each got $10 to spend so we got 10 things to open! It was great to have a little something something and toys to play with on the day. I think we made a gingerbread house from scratch that year...it took ALL Day!

I have lots more ideas of things to try, so when I try a few more I will be sure to add to this list online. Hope this helps you enjoy your family more!!

 This picture was taken during a family stroll at a Free Arboretum, fun times!!