Day 66 - Visiting Great Grandpa & Great Aunts

After spending a week camping with the Vaughn's, we want to see even more family! We called up Grandma's dad and sisters to see if we could join them for church while we're in town.

Two other families ended up joining us all and we have a great time attending church together, then having a picnic at the park. My kids are so lucky to have such great Great Aunts and a great Great Grandpa.

Veterans Memorial Park in West Jordan, Utah is pretty cool. There are multiple playgrounds and ball fields. We were there in the late afternoon and the east side of the park was the shadiest so we picnicked there. It also had the coolest playground. In addition to the typical slides and jungle gym playground, there was a huge wooden playground. It was an old west theme with giant forts the kids could run and climb in and then slide down. The wooden playground was also fenced so it was a bit easier to keep track of kids.

Day 58 - Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program

I love to read. My kids are learning to love to read, but usually enjoy being read to more. That's fine with me, though. A love for books has to start somewhere.

There are some great summer reading programs out there. Barnes & Noble's program is super simple. You pick up a reading log from the store (or print one here), read 8 books, fill it out, and return it for a free book (from a limited selection). The reading log sort of implies that the program is for elementary school aged children but it doesn't specify any age restrictions in the terms. It also doesn't specify the type of length of books the kids have to read. We've been listening to Percy Jackson on our road trips, so they all have some pretty long ones on there, but I did let them add quick books they've read that are way below their reading levels. 

Here are some tips from an earlier post about getting kids to read this summer.

Day 57 - Minecraft Birthday Party

Kid Two is turning 7 on Sunday and requested a Minecraft party. I'd prefer a swim party. I mean, we are in Arizona and Grandma lives just down the street and has a great pool. But alas, he had his heart set on Minecraft. 

Since I know nothing about Minecraft, it was Pinterest to the rescue. That, and asking Kid One & Two questions about the games they've really only been playing a week or two.

Decorations

I kept it simple. Black and green streamers and balloons, black table cloth, green plates, and traditional birthday banners.

Craft

I modified a creeper shirt idea I found here. 

Supplies:

-Green Shirt

-Cardboard

-Spray Paint

I bought green shirts from Dollar Tree for each of the boys. (A quick tip about Dollar Tree shirts; watch out for holes.) I cut a stencil of a Creeper face out of a piece of cardboard. When the boys came for the party, they chose a shirt (there were a few different shades of green), laid it on the grass, placed the stencil over it, and sprayed it with flat black spray paint ($1 at Walmart). They then out the shirt in the back of a chair to dry. The spray paint dries very quickly. We made Kid Two's shirt the day before and washed it to check the results. The excess spray from the paint washed off leaving a clear creeper face.

Games

I wanted to play water games so we could be outside. From what I understand about Minecraft, you can do pretty much anything and tie it back to the game

Dynamite Toss-We did a water balloon toss but said the water balloons were dynamite since that is in the game.

Fill the Creeper Trap Relay: I guess, in Minecraft, Creepers can be trapped in water. We used bowls and played a game I found here. Basically, you have two teams. The team members stand in a single file line. The first person scoops up some water from a bucket (or in our case, a kiddie pool) they then bring the bowl over their head and dump it behind their back. The next person in line has to catch the water in their bowl, then pass it in the same manner to the next person in line. The last person in line dumps whatever water got to them into a bucket at the end. Whichever team has more water in their bucket at the end wins.

Mining Gems: I found mining games like this one here, but thought I would change it up to make it a little more messy and fun. Instead of mining through dirt, I had them use their hands to search for white stones through shaving cream. Each plate of shaving cream concealed 10 stones. The first boy to find all 10 stones won the game.

Cake

I used 2 square pans to bake chocolate cake. Make sure to oil and flour the pans well so the cake is easily removed. I then made a double layered cake with green frosting, but I didn't cover the bottom. The green frosting on the top and the brown cake on the bottom apparently looks like a Grass Block from the game. We did spell out his name with chocolate chips on the top, which didn't look too great.

Party Favors

We made up little bags with thank you cards we found here, chocolate rocks (which look like real rocks), smarties, and suckers. We gave them to the boys as they left. I love taking care of thank you cards right away.

So his party was very lightly Minecraft themed, but enough that he enjoyed it. Do you do theme parties for your kids?

Day 56 - Swirl It Frozen Yogurt

There are so many self serve frozen yogurt places these days. We were going to try a new one, but Swirl It was closer.

We love our Gilbert Swirl-it. They have fun games and toys, good flavors, and good coupons. You can read my full review here: http://www.trekaroo.com/restaurants/swirl-it-frozen-yogurt-gilbert-arizona

Almost all frozen yogurt places have coupons. Swirl-it has coupons in most mailers. We usually have one pinned up on our whiteboard. If you have a favorite yogurt place, check for coupons and the keep them somewhere like your car. If you don't, shop around for the best deal. There are groupons, living social deals, printable coupons, text coupons, you name it.

Day 50 - Swimming at JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort

My family was invited to enjoy the pools at JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort for the afternoon.

The pool area here covers 4 acres and includes 4 pools, a waterslide, a splash pad, and 2 hot tubs. Of course, no one was using the hot tubs on this hot Phoenix afternoon, but it was nice to know they were there. The landscaping was beautiful. The lazy river was relaxing. The kids loved the waterslide. We had a great afternoon. You can read my full review here.

JW Desert Ridge has a great Fling & Swing promotion going on right now with package rates starting at $149. It includes a $50 resort credit, free golf, free kids meals, access to the Family Escape Center, and 20% off at the spa. The promotion runs through September 7th.

Day 55 - Summer Reading Program Rewards

Summer is the library's time to shine. Reading programs with activities and prizes for all ages. Today we cashed in on all those minutes we listened to Percy Jackson 3 & 4 on our road trips.

Our library doesn't have tons of prizes, but the kids all got coupons for free kids meals at Chipotle. I got a BOGO coupon from the adult reading program. Super cheap dinner for the family tonight. Other prizes for the kids included bubbles, a rubber ducky, and a random flinging toy. We all earned a free book that we get to choose and order online.

What is your library's summer reading program like?

Day 54 - Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A

Another restaurant holiday today, and we get to dress up for this one! Love an excuse to put on a costume.

4 kids meals, 2 regular meals, and a salad...all FREE! Fun, free, delicious lunch and happy calves, er, I mean kids.

Many people are scared to go to free days at restaurants because they don't want to deal with the the crowds. My trick to avoiding crowds is going a little early. We went to Chick-Fil-A at 11AM. We didn't wait any longer than usual to place our order and I think our food was ready quicker than normal. There were plenty of tables available, too. When we left at noon, the line for food was getting longer but it wasn't extremely long. The lobby area was full but the line wasn't out the door. I heard from people who went at different times of day that, although there were lots of people, service was quick and it wasn't too crazy. If you didn't get out to Chick-Fil-A this year for cow appreciation day, try it next year and you won't want to miss it again.

Check out my list of favorite free food days here: http://vaughnfamilysummerfun.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-51-celebrating-7-eleven-day-with.html

Day 53 - Feed My Starving Children

Monday night we have Family Home Evening. We usually have a short lesson about a scripture story or gospel principle, followed by an activity. We get an opportunity to teach our children of Gods love and get to spend time as a family. Tonight, we excluded the younger ones to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.

Feed My Starving Children is a great organization that sends food to hungry children in poor countries. They operate through donations and volunteers. 90% of donations are used to buy supplies for Manna Rice Packs; a combination of vitamins, vegetables, soy, and rice. Each box of assembled packs feeds a child for 7 months. Volunteers are young as 5-years-old can help assemble these packs by scooping ingredients into bags. Older volunteers can help weigh, seal, and box the packs. If you are allergic to soy or need to sit, you can help label. There is a job for everyone. We are lucky enough to have a permanent packing facility near our home, but there are mobile packing sites as well. Check their website for more information.

Service Opportunities for Kids

It is hard to find places that let kids volunteer, but there are some opportunities out there. Here are some resources and ideas:

• Feed My Starving Children-kids as young as 5 can volunteer (with an adult)
• JustServe.org-Service opportunities in your community. You can search by age range.
• Volunteermatch.org - You can search by age range AND interests
• Make-a-Wish - our school has a donation drive for them every year and through that, we found out about a service opportunity to help fulfill a wish by building a playground. The kids weren't too helpful, but they could carry pieces and hold things for people. If you email or call, I'm sure they could find a wish your family could help fulfill for a child in your community.
• Drives and Donations-this is the easiest for kids but I feel like this is what they always get stuck with. Have them raise money through a bake sale or lemonade stand to donate to a cause (we do a door-to-door bake sale in our neighborhood for Make-A-Wish) or go door-to-door (with parents of course) collecting food or goods to donate.
• Visit a retirement home-my kids are kind of shy, so we don't do this, but I should. Old people love to see children and have someone to talk to.
• Random Acts of Kindness - make a list (or find one online) and start crossing them off. Do at least one a day.
• Pick up trash-go to a park, a parking lot,  the beach. There is trash everywhere.
• Make Fleece blankets and scarves to donate-fleece scarves and blankets are super easy and always in need.

Day 52 - Family Game Night

Grandma and Cousin joined us for dinner tonight and stayed for some game time.

I posted previously about how we like to play games with the older kids after the little ones go to bed. Well, tonight we tried letting them join in. Well...Kid Five sat in her high chair eating blueberries but she was at the table with us. We tried to include Kid Four, but he kept pulling the pieces off the board. We eventually just let him play with the pieces and played Cranium without pieces going around the board.

Day 51 - Celebrating 7-Eleven Day with Free Slurpees

We love freebies and slurpees. July 11th is a fun day to enjoy both of these things.

Stores love making their own holidays and we love for them to do it because they always give us free stuff. 

Some of my favorite Food Holidays

National Pancake Day: In February IHOP celebrates this day by giving customers free short stacks.

Joes BBQ Customer Appericiation Day: Early in May, Joe's appreciates its customers with free food.

National Donut Day: The first Friday in June stop into Krispy Kreme for a free donut.

July 11th: 7-Eleven Day. Free small slurpees. 

Cow Appreciation Day: One day in July, Chick-Fil-A celebrates Cow Appreciation Day by giving its customers a free meal if they dress like a cow.

Talk like a Pirate Day: Another free Krispy Kreme donut if you talk like a pirate.

Joes Farm Grill Customer Appreciation Day: Early in November, Joes other restaurant appreciates its customers with free food.

Snow Day: In December, Bahama Bucks hosts a Snow Day with free snow cones.

Day 49 - Bass Pro Shop's Family Summer Camp

My kids are getting used to half-hour drives. Why is everything half and hour away?

Bass Pro Shops does a fun free event for the month of July. Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday they have Family Summer Camp. During this free event families can do a craft, participate in workshops, and practice shooting and casting. 

Workshops

During the "camp" there 20 minute classes offered every hour about different outdoor sports. The one we attended today was about archery. It was pretty boring. We couldn't hear anything because the class was right by the stream/waterfall. 20 minutes was also a very long time for my kids to sit and watch a PowerPoint with no interaction. They do get a lanyard and a pin showing they completed the course for each workshop they attend, but one was all we could do.

Craft

Every week there is a different craft offered. These are the types of crafts you'd buy through Oriental Trading Company. Today was a turkey footprint magnet that the kids colored with permanent markers. They were pretty cool and the kids enjoyed coloring them.

Camp Activities 

The big attraction was the BB gun range. Any age could par tipster and there was an employee to help them. My 3-year-old was really excited to try it. While the parents waited in line for BB shooting, the kids went around to the other activities; electronic shooting range, casting practice, and an "archery range" which was actually just a suction dart and target. 

Other Attractions

Bass Pro is just a fun place in general. There are taxidermied animals everywhere. It's like a taxidermy zoo with lots of bears, lions, mountain goats, you name it. There is also a huge fish tank with huge fish that the kids love to sit and watch for a long time. I don't know if this is true for all Bass Pro Shops, but ours has a little carousel kids can ride for free. My kids ride it over and over. And another fun freebies here: fudge samples. There is a little shop with a huge variety of fudge. My daughter and her cousin had at least 6 samples each. Delicious.

Day 48 - Halle Heart Museum

Backstory: We were going to check out the Tempe Historical Museum and their family friendly summertime events. BUT we drove all the way up there to find a sign on the door saying they were having power issues and the museum was closed for the rest of the day. So now we're up in Tempe with nothing to do. I had a groupon that I'd let expire for the Halle Heart Museum, so that was plan B.

The Halle Heart Museum is hidden in the corner of the American Heart Associate building. It's a cute little museum and a fun place to spend a hour or so. You can read my review from the first time we went here:http://www.trekaroo.com/activities/halle-heart-museum-tempe-arizona

Children 3 and under are free, 4 and up cost $5.

Discounts:

Halle Heart Museum participates in a free lunch program. If you come his summer between 11AM and 1PM you get free admission and kids 18 and under get a free lunch.

If your library participates in the Culture Pass program, stop by and pick up a pass for 2 free admissions.

Day 47 - I.d.e.a. Museum

The new Once Upon a Time exhibit opened last month at the i.d.e.a. Museum and since Kid One's pogo pass expires today, it was our last day to check it out for free.

Anything I write about this today will be a repeat so I'll refer you to this post and say good night.

http://vaughnfamilysummerfun.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-7-idea-museum.html

Day 46-Disney Store Summer Play Days

We love to play at the San Tan Village in Gilbert, Arizona. They have a puppy store, Build-a-Bear, playground and splash pad, tropical smoothie, and one of our favorite stores, The Disney Store.

Every summer, the Disney Store hosts these fun little free events called "Summer Play Days." All Disney stores are required to offer free activities at least 3 days a week but most have something everyday. Earlier this summer we went to the Disney Store in Temecula, CA for storytime. They read a story about Jake and the Neverland Pirates, had the kids act parts of it out and gave them all gold doubloons with a picture of Cubby on them. Today we participated in the Art of Drawing at San Tan Village. The kids learned to draw Mickey Mouse and Captian America's shield. Each week kids participate, they can earn a new pin for their lanyard. Most of the activities only take about 15-20 minutes, so we usually make the Disney Summer Play Day part of a mall outing instead of our only activity for the day. Activities start in June and go through August. Times and activities vary every week so call ahead to find the schedule.

Day 45 - Missionaries to Dinner & Evening Walk

You may not know this, but Arizona gets hot in the summer. The locals like to escape the heat whenever they can. Fourth of July weekend gets pretty empty at church. At our church we take turns hosting the missionaries for dinner. Since we happened to be in town this week when no one else was, we decided to take a turn.

Having the missionaries over for dinner is great for the family. The kids get to see these young men who gave up a couple years of their life to teach people about Christ. They also always leave us with a message. Today it was about how we can be perfected in Christ.

The weather after the missionaries left was a cool 89 degrees. There was a nice breeze. We had to take advantage and go for an evening walk.

Day 44 - Fourth of July in Safford, AZ

Small towns seem to know how to do partriotic holidays. My sister just moved to Safford, AZ. It seemed like a great time to visit.

There was a pancake breakfast, bike parade for the kids, and a city parade down Main Street. In the afternoon there was a Battle of the Bands and Nickle Picnic at the fair grounds. The breakfast at bike parade at the church were fun. Lots of the kids decorated their bikes and rode around in circles. My kids brought scooters and joined in the fun. The city parade was mostly people in their trucks driving down the rode. A couple cool farm machines were in the parade so that was fun. After the parade we were too hot to hang out at the fairgrounds. We did have a great time hanging out with cousins.

Day 43 - Swimming at Roper Lake

My sister recently moved to Safford, Arizona and we decided to visit for the 4th. Safford is home to Roper Lake State Park. I'd recently seen an article about camping at Roper Lake saying it was a great place. This seemed like a good day to see if that article was true.

The lake was beautiful. The mountains in the background and the greenery around the lake made the whole setting so picturesque. The water was warm. The lake floor was sandy, not rocky. And there wasn't too much gunk floating around in the water. It was a beautiful day. You can read my full review here: http://www.trekaroo.com/activities/roper-lake-state-park-safford-arizona

Day 42 - The Dolly Steamboat on Canyon Lake

I'd seen the Dolly Steamboat on Groupon and thought it would be a great date for Hunby and me. I never thought about taking the kids until it was suggested to me by my friend at Visit Mesa. She hooked us up with passes and today we found ourselves on a scenic nature cruise on Canton Lake.

The cruise was great. The crew was friendy. The narrator was funny and informative. The kids had a good time and so did I. Seeing all the boaters and jet skis out on the water did make want to spend sometime actually in the water. Who wants to take us out on their boat or jet skis 😉? You can read by full review of The Dolly Steamboat here: http://www.trekaroo.com/activities/the-dolly-steamboat-tortilla-flat-arizona

Deals for The Dolly Steamboat

*Entertainment Book or App- print BOGO free coupon if you own a current book (or snag on from a friend with a book)

*Groupon has 2 tickets for $27 at this link: https://www.groupon.com/deals/dolly-steamboat-5?utm_source=GPN&utm_medium=afl&z=skip&utm_campaign=200940&mediaId=201773&sid=gd42QTtu

*AAA members save $3 a ticket

Day 41 - Inside Out at Regal Cinema

We had a fun idea to go with our movie outing today...dressing up! Most of the kids were into it, except Kid Two gave me a hard time. No problem, though. He was Anger.

I think the kids were a lot more into the movie because they were each trying to see how their character acted. Kid Four was so cute as the boy version of Sadness. The costumes were so easy. For Joy, we wanted to spray her hair blue but ran out of blue spray so went with purple and a blur headband. She didn't have a green dress so she borrowed one of Dad's shirts and tied some yarn around the middle. Anger's costume was the easiest: white dress shirts, red tie, khaki shorts. I couldn't find our red bow tie for Fear, so he is wearing a gray one that you can't really see. Since we live in AZ we don't have any sweater vests either but he looked super cute in his suit vest. Sadness wore blue shorts and a white shirt. He had glasses without lens and we sprayed his hair blue...well, a little blue but then it ran out. Kid Five was Disgust. She had a cute green sundress that worked perfectly. I tried to keep a green headband on her just for a picture but she never keeps them on. She actually stayed home with Grandma so we could enjoy the movie.

 Inside Out was a good movie. I wasn't sure what to expect but I really liked it. The theater we watched it in was great, too. The Regal Cinema Gilbert 14 has amazing seats. Kid Four even joined me in my seat for a little and I was still comfortable. They also have reserved seating. You can also save a lot of money if you go to the first showing of the day. Only $5.05 a ticket. I suggest buying your tickets in advance so you can be sure to get the seats you want. You can read my review of the theater here.