Thrifty Thursday: It's Chic to Be Cheap (Summertime Kid Activities)

Um, it's July. Already.

Has the summer flown by for anyone else? I do my best to keep Natalie and Michaela Byrd occupied, but I end some days feeling like I need a straight jacket and a padded room.

Last summer, I wrote a post about Summer Activities to keep families busy. A lot of those activities kept me from locking myself in the laundry room and chanting "Serenity Now" over and over to myself. I thought it would be fun to update that list with some new ideas today.

1. Take advantage of free stuff!!

• Story time: our library and local Border's offer great story sessions with books, crafts, songs, and sometimes even a short movie. We attended a Toy Story 3 party at Border's a few weeks ago, and the girls enjoyed a craft, snacks, games, and prizes. For free.

• Vacation Bible School: many churches offer a free, weeklong "day camp" of sorts. Our church treats around 800 children to Bible stories, songs, crafts, recess, skits, games, and snacks. My girls got to enjoy the church nursery while I worked in the "Snack Shack" last week, and they had just as much fun as the big kids!
• Free movies: Several of the theaters in The 'Burg offer free kids' movies twice a week in the mornings. We have to get there early to beat the daycare buses, and I sneak in candy. Start your own Mini Chick Flick Club!
• Summer Play Group: It's easy to grab a couple of girlfriends one morning each week for coffee and a chat while the kids run wild in the playroom. Rotate houses and sign a contract in blood promise to do a toy clean up at the end for the hostess.
• Craft demos for kids at local craft stores.
• Our gym advertised a member party for Tuesday night and I took my girls down to meet a few friends. Free hotdogs, snowcones, and face painting rounded out a full day. You just have to be on the lookout  for stuff like this and then remember to attend!

2. Low-cost:

• Make it easy on yourself; pick up a couple of Happy Meals, meet some friends at the park, and let the kids play. Once the trash from the meal has been discarded, take the kids on a quick nature walk if you're in an area that has trails. 
• Join a summer Bible study! It'll cost you the price of a workbook and maybe some childcare money, but it will be well worth it. Hire a teen to keep the kids busy.
• Paula had a great post about Geocaching. Great for older kids!
• Are there any workshops or short summer classes through your Parks and Rec system?

3. It'll Cost You, But It Will Be Worth It:

• Join a pool: best money we spend all summer. period.

• Save up and spend a day at the closest amusement park. I reaaaallly want to take the girls to Kings Dominion near Richmond. They have great kiddie stuff, and we haven't been since Natalie was 2!

I'm all ears if you have any more suggestions! If you have a post to share with summer kid/family activities, please feel free to link them up here. All I ask is that you include a link to me somewhere in your post and link to the specific url of your post (not just your blog's homepage). Be sure to check and see if your link posted. If it didn't, let me know and I will add it for you!

I'd stay to chat, but we have a little coffee playgroup this morning to get to! Back later today!

Easy, Kid-Friendly Treat for the 4th!

Kate, one of my most favoritest bloggers ev-er, is hosting a Stars and Stripes Party today and I just had to join in!

We're getting into the patriotic spirit around here, and I let the girls help me in the kitchen yesterday. I told them we were going to make Chocolate Dipped Pretzels as a surprise for Daddy, and they were stoked. Natalie did sort of break the rules and told T "not to look at the pretzels on the counter because it's a surprise," but they kept the overall secret pretty well.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels are the perfect blend of sweet and salty!

(Hit Target's Dollar Spot for red, white, and blue sprinkles!)

I melted milk chocolate and white chocolate in separate glasses. Juice glasses work well because they are short and skinny. Then I let the girls dip until their hearts were content...or until I couldn't take the chocolate splatters anymore.

Before the chocolate hardened on wax paper sheets, we topped the pretzel treats with sprinkles and swirls of chocolate.

Stacked on a Stars and Stripes platter from The Dollar Tree, they made for a delicious treat!

Shockingly, T didn't put the sight bags of chocolate chips and the pretzels on the counter together, and he was surprised when he got home from work last night.

Do you have a favorite dish to share around Independence Day? Check in for Friday's Weekend Bloggy Reading for some great recipe links!

If you stop by tomorrow, I'll have a post up with some fun summer activity ideas. If I remember to, I'll include a linky so you can join in if you have a similar post to share.

I am officially counting down until my Eclipse movie night tonight at 7 with my friend L. We're looking forward to drooling over Jacob and Edward. And don't forget the popcorn!

Happy Wednesday!

Red, White, and Blue Outdoor Makeover

It's Red, White, and Blue Day over at The CSI Project! (I am so sorry about the font sizes today, guys, I can't figure it out!)

I don't have anything earth shattering to share, but I did want to give you all an update on the T house.

A few weeks ago, I shared a few pictures of my kind of bland front door area. I haven't had a chance to implement some of the bigger transformations (vinyl lettering on the front door, painted light fixtures, etc), but I wanted to share the little tweaks I made just in time to celebrate the 4th of July.

Here's the Before again:

Here are a few Afters:

Front door--I usually put up a really cute wreath with red, white, and blue berries but couldn't find it up in the attic. It was also about eleventy billion degrees up there and I didn't feel like suffocating. (The white box is covering my house numbers, stalkers!)


My old flag "Welcome" sign usually hangs to the right of the door, but it's got center stage right now.

Found this fabulously glittery "America" sign at The Dollar Tree and hung it to greet the mail lady.

My window boxes need some filling out, but I found some marigolds and wave petunias on sale at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and brought them home. I stuck a tiny flag in each box.

More stars and stripes in the flower beds!

It's coming together, bit by bit. Somewhere, I have a patriotic bunting to hang on the center flower box, but for now passersby can smile and sing "The Star Spangled Banner" when they drive by the T house.

Not bad for shopping the house and spending around $2 on Red, White, and Blue decorations.

{Do you have an area in your home that you've been making Progress on?}

Consider linking up to the next Progress party on July 28th! Remember...you don't have to have a complete, finished Delightful "After" photo to link up. Progress can be anything as small as listing the ideas from Decorating Dilemmas comments you received that you really liked and want to implement. If you haven't linked up a Decorating Dilemma here before, then think outside the box and share something you've made strides with: weight loss, organization, finishing a craft project, etc.) This party is all about encouraging others in their efforts! (You can view the last party here)

Mini Chick Flick Club

If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you know how much I love my Chick Flick Club. We've been on a bit of a hiatus, but I hope to revive it soon. This girl needs her chick flick nights!

I've been promising Natalie that we'd go to see Toy Story 3 in the movie theater when it came out. After being tortured by commercial trailers for ages, the movie finally came out a week or two ago and I had to make good on my promise.

I think I was even more excited about our little date than Natalie was. We left Michaela Byrd in the care of T, wisely leaving the house before she woke up from her nap and discovered we were missing. The temp outside was hovering around 101, making it the perfect day for a movie date.

I was pretty sure that 3D would give me a major headache, so we drove over to the fancy new theater that boasts a restaurant, bowling alley, and VIP lounge/bar because it was the only one in town playing the film in good old fashioned 2D.

Natalie asked me every 5.7 seconds if I would buy her some popcorn. I think she was more excited about the popcorn than the movie.

 See how she clutches it close to her body, almost as if she's afraid someone might take it away?

The movie itself was absolutely precious. Only Disney can make an adult feel sympathy for inanimate objects. They combined hilarious characters with bittersweet moments. I found myself crying at the end, but giving myself a headache from trying not to cry so Natalie wouldn't look over and exclaim, "Mommy, why is your face leaking?" in front of the whole theater.

Two. thumbs. up.

We ended our date by dining on 5 star cuisine at Chez McDonalds. Eeer...her choice.

We had so much fun that I thought it might be a neat idea to try this as a Mini Chick Flick Club with some of her little friends this summer. Several of the movie theaters in our area offer free kids' movies once or twice a week. It would be fun to do a movie and lunch...

As long as the other moms come too!

I'm doing a STRIVE class at the gym this morning, trying not to die, so I'll leave you today with a couple of fun clips with my two favorite characters from the movie: Barbie and Ken. (Ken really stole the show! The second clip isn't from the movie, but it's funny.)




The winner of the Giveaway from one9designs is Paula from Sweet Pea. Send me an email, Paula, so I can get you in touch with Kristin!

*one9designs is generously offering you, my readers, 20% off of your purchase between now and Wednesday. Just be sure to type "serenitynow" in the message to seller area upon purchase!*

Recess (and Thrifty Treasures)

I had my own little Recess yesterday morning, and it was awe-some.

I'll share about my 5 days of VBS later this week, but let's just say that my "Recess" time was well-deserved and much needed.

Mimi (my mom) came to pick up the girls around 11 am, and she could have taken them to a resort in Mexico for all I cared. I was so ready to have a leetle break from the screeching and running and fighting and the throwing of the doll house people. Bleh.

So Mimi took the girls to her good friend's M's house to play with M's grandkids. I thought about warning them that Natalie and Michaela Byrd seemed to be perched on the precipice of a major meltdown after a very long week, but I thought better of it and decided to save myself.

I began my free time with a stop to Dunkin Donuts so that I could grab a café mocha without tiny little people begging me for a "chockit donut."

It was not as delicious as usual, but I enjoyed it because I was able to drive on the highway without listening to a back seat argument on whether or not Michaela Byrd actually is a princess.

I ran a few errands, ran into a friend at Old Navy, treated myself to lunch at Panera Bread (!), and made a stop in Target to buy frozen waffles, and was lured by that siren of a Dollar Spot which is sort of the main point of this post anyways.

I figured that since I didn't make it to a yard sale this weekend, I could share my Dollar Spot finds with you. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to find them in your Target too!

First up:
Found a neat little Crayola workbook and a dry erase board for practicing handwriting for Natalie (Dry erase markers were from the office section, but a steal at $1.99)

Also:
Some garden shears.

I realize that these will probably be sharp enough to cut a couple of blades of grass before they fall apart, but I don't really need to do a lot of pruning right now.

And:

Love these patriotic plates and napkins! We rarely do anything for the 4th because of T's wonderful schedule, but I figured the girls and I could at least enjoy some holiday cupcakes with these babies.

By the time I got home, it was time for Mimi and the girls to be back, except my mom is the queen of not being punctual ever, and I ended up having a whole extra hour to myself. I read a classic caught up on a DVR show and put some 4th of July decorations up outside.

It was glorious. But I was starting to miss the girls, and they pulled into the driveway just in time with sleepy, I've-had-no-nap-today eyes and tales of pink lemonade and cookies.

I enjoy getting some time all to myself every now and then...it helps me unwind a little bit so I don't have to be Cranky Mommy. I bet the girls enjoy that too!

{Did you come across any thrifty finds this weekend?}

Linking to Rhoda for her fun Thrifty Treasures party!

::Weekend Bloggy Reading::

Hellooo, Friday! Today is the last day of Vacation Bible School, so while I am frantically filling 5 gallon jugs of Fruit Punch, you can read some of my favorite posts I found around Blogland this week. And please don't forget to enter the awesome one9designs Giveaway before Sunday at 5 pm!

~If you need a 12 step program for your magazine hoarding, Megan's Magazine Solution might be for you (and me).

~Beth is such a fun mama! Take a look at her Flowerpot Brownie Cakes!

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~If you love Glee as much as I do, you are going to freak out when you read this new blog: What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear?. I linked to a very funny post about the pilot and Emma.

~Love Kierste's Burlap Chore Chart

~Designer Blogs shared 4 Things Not to Do to Your Blog.

~Check out Rachelle's Master Bedroom Makeover.

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~Victoria showed her readers how she crafted her own "Bon Appetit" Sign.

~Beckie wrote about making her bread do double duty: Uncrustables and Croutons!

{Sooo..do you have any big plans for the weekend?}

I'd love to hit a yard sale or two on Saturday. I am desperate to find some plant stands or a metal shelving unit for my deck, but it's SO hot...I don't know if there will be any sales this weekend. We'll definitely spend some time at the pool, and I am halfway through my giant pile of ironing. Maybe I'll treat myself to some ice cream when I finish.

Have a wonderful weekend!

one9designs Giveaway!

I don't mind telling you that I'm a little bit bummed out today...I'm bummed because lovely Kristin from one9designs is hosting a fab Giveaway today for Serenity Now readers and I can't enter because that would be just plain tacky.

I introduced you to this super-cute Etsy shop last month, and I was so excited to show off some of Kristin's hand-crafted, hand-stamped creations.

I think one of the coolest things about one9designs is that the shop doesn't only showcase necklaces, charms, and rings, but also really neat personalized gifts and items for pet lovers!

So...here's the exciting part...

one9designs is graciously giving away a $50 Gift Certificate to the shop to one lucky reader.

If you win, you can choose any personalized piece you'd like. Think Christmas (yes, I know it's June), birthdays, or even a little gifty for yourself.

Here's how you can enter. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. :

1. (Mandatory to enter!) Visit one9designs, check out Kristin's fabulous work, and leave me a comment here telling me which piece is your favorite.
2. Sign up to Follow me here at Serenity Now or let me know if you're already a Follower.
3. Tweet OR Facebook this Giveaway with a link to this post.
4. Mention this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.

The Giveaway will remain open until Sunday night at 5 pm (ET). Good luck!