Free Day!

As a "Mom-of-Many" I'm always on the lookout for

fun opportunities for my children that are not going 

to break the bank!!

Recently, we found a whole day of fun activities that helped us beat the heat

as well as cost us nothing!!!

Maybe in your area, your local schools or libraries offer free lunches

to children of all ages during the summer months.

We have several facilities here in town that do that,

so we got out of the kitchen and helped ourselves to a free lunch.

On this day, our local slurpee joint was offering free slurpees all day,

so we stopped off there for dessert after lunch!

A couple hours later, we drove over to our amazing local library where

they offer incredible free educational programs every Tuesday afternoon 

during the months of June and July!

We have attended so many of these through the years

 and they are always a pleasure!

On this particular day, our local zoo brought a slew of small animals

 for the children to see and learn about!! 

 Aryn even got picked to go up front and have a hands-on

experience with a giant lizard!

After the library presentation, we hit a different slurpee store for free slurpee #2 with a friend!

Not to be left-out, the grown-ups had a free date night to our favorite

dinner spot because of a gift card my husband had received on Father's Day!!

Such a lovely, relaxing summer day!!

With a little planning, you can hunt down some budget-friendly

ways to get your family off the summer couch too!!!

Terrific Tuesday: Family Pictures 2013

As we turned the calendar page to the last month of this year, December, our lives were swept into warp speed!

I can hardly remember a December that has been this busy, and yes, even overwhelming.

There have been moments already when I felt as if I were standing up, pulling back hard on the reins, to hold onto the horses just bolting ahead and threatening to tip this entire wagon over.

And this year, just to make things more interesting, we have multiple activities overlapping.

I've told several people that I can feel myself developing a nervous tic just trying to keep it all the bases covered.

Anyway, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, we scheduled a wonderful afternoon with a dear, dear friend (our youth pastor's wife from our church) who is also a fabulous photographer.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

If you're interested in seeing this photo shoot in it's entirety, go here.

Terrific Tuesday: Pumpkin Patch 2012

Every year for the last 9 years (give or take a year) we have visited the Pumpkin Patch in October!

This year was no exception.

We invited dear, long-time friends to go with us, and it turned into a sort

of homeschool group outing.

We always have a great time, but this year was especially fun!!

(Warning:  Lots of pictures ahead!)

Terrific Tuesday! Texas State Fair 2012

We have to be really creative and do a lot of planning when it comes to fun family outings on a budget.
One way I have found to be so helpful is to just start looking around early for great deals.
The Texas State Fair is an amazing event to participate in, but it's not cheap.
You could so easily drop $1000 or more in a day there on just admission, rides, fair food, and the purchase of one Vitamix offered at a "Special Fair Price" of only $449!"

Fortunately for those of us with large families, there are Canned Food Drive Wednesdays!
Bring in 3 cans of food per person and admission is only $2 per person.
We happened to snag 5 free tickets from a couple different sources, so our total cost on admission was only $6 for 9 of us (a savings of over $100 on the price of regular admission!)

We carried our lunch and snacks in and prepped the children that we wouldn't be buying the overly priced fair food.  I bought a ton of prepackaged junk food that we don't normally buy so it would all be a big treat for them.  I ended up with FIFTY little snack bags and 15 sandwiches.  We brought home 5 sandwiches.
We also carried in drinks as well.

My mother-in-law was able to go with us this year (since she just retired a couple weeks ago!!), and she gave each of the children $5 spending money.  I saw that either go towards french fries or pooled together for one ride.
I always plan out the free shows we want to see so we are in the right place at the right time.
It's always a bummer when you want to see the dogs perform at 11am, but you're way on the other side of the park!!
The weather was beautiful, and we all had such a great time this year!!

Waiting to see the dog tricks!! 

Displays in the Creative Arts Building

Couldn't believe I was seeing this beautiful "Mrs. Beasley" Doll. 

 I loved mine to her death! 

This beautiful doll was AH-mazing!! 

Another really fun show!

 We were waiting for a trained bird to fly out of the car at the very top of the ferris wheel to soar down to the stage here.

This was a person wearing this spectacular tree costume.

He had lots of fun scaring people!