Family Fun Day

Today was a scorcher of a day, 97+ degrees, however we decided to make it a family fun day.  We decided to redeem a groupon we had previously purchased online.  When we redeemed our groupon, they gave us four coupons for four tokens to redeem for four baskets of balls, four coupons for four tokens to redeem for four turns at the batting cages and another four coupons for four plays of miniature golf.  The groupon says all needs to be redeemed on the same day, however when we got there the coupons they gave us did not expire until April 2011.  

We went to Arundel Golf Park in Glen Burnie, MD and had a great time together at the driving range, at the batting cages and at the miniature golf.  We took pictures and enjoyed the day together.  This was our first experience doing these things together and it turned out to be a lot of fun...yes, even in scorching hot weather.

When we were at the driving range, all the golf lessons I had when I was little came rushing back to me.  I did pretty good.  My husband taught our youngest how to hit the balls and my husband hit some really far himself.  Our oldest had learned golf from a friend's husband a few years ago and the lessons came back to him.

At the batting cages, we had a little trouble with the softball machine but after it got started back up, all was ok.  I had never been to batting cages before.  It took awhile to get used to but it was a lot of fun!  Our youngest got hit on his finger from the softball so he was in too much pain to continue hitting his softballs.  Our oldest, my husband and I had a blast doing it.

Miniature golf was a little tricky on some of the courses.  At the end of the round, my husband won, our oldest came in second and our youngest and myself tied for last place.  

Hasbro Family Game Night

On Saturday, June 19, 2010, I hosted a Hasbro Family Game Night at our house.  About 10 of my family and friends attended.  There was a lot of food served including crackers with dip and assorted salsas, fruit kebobs, garlic chicken, barbeque chicken, grilled corn on the cob, rice and key lime cake.  We started out playing Taboo and had a blast and moved on from there to Trivial Pursuit Bet You Know It to Electronic Catch Phrase.  Prior to this party, I hadn't played Trivial Pursuit in such a long time and now I remember why, I am not that great.  Electronic Catch Phrase I had never played as well and turned out to be an interesting game.  Out of all the games included in the party pack, our guests absolutely loved Taboo, then Trivial Pursuit and then Electronic Catch Phrase.  Our family and friends had a blast checking out and playing the games they were not as familiar with.  This was my first House Party and we absolutely had a blast and can't wait to experience it again.  Thank you Hasbro for affording us this opportunity to explore games with our family and friends!

Spring/Summer Activities

School is ending in less then a month and with summer on the horizon, here are some ways you and your family can really enjoy yourselves without hurting your pocketbook.

1. Cinemark's Summer Movie Clubhouse - 10 movies for $5 if purchased in advance.  Select your state and movie theater here: http://www.cinemark.com/summermovieclubhouse/
2. Regal's Free Family Film Festival - free movies during the summer.  Select your state here:http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx
3. Local libraries - most times they have their summer reading program where you can earn rewards after every so many books read.  The ones in Maryland have summer activities.  In the past, they have had magic shows, science shows, storytime, etc...
4. Smithsonian Museums - these are always free admission.
5. Redbox - rent movies for $1/day.
6. Blockbuster Express - rent movies for $1/day.
7. Restaurants with indoor play areas - places such as McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A.
8. Visiting a local farmer's market - It is a great time to teach kids about different fruits and vegetables and to find out where our produce comes from.
9. Day trips to Washington DC - is a great opportunity to soak up the history of our country and to visit all the free monuments, museums and tourist attractions.  We loved visiting the National Zoo, Navy Memorial & Museum, White House, state Senate office building, reflecting pool, National Mall, Smithsonian Museums, Arlington National Cemetary, etc...
10. Day trips to Ocean City, Maryland - is time to enjoy all the sites on and off the boardwalk and enjoy the beach!  While you are down there you can visit Assateague Island National Seashore and wildlife refuge.
11. Visit Baltimore's Inner Harbor - is a great time to take in a little history of Baltimore like at Fort McHenry.  There are also the tourist attractions like the National Aquarium, Fells Point, Lexington Market, etc...
12. Groupon.com - Offers great deals on activities throughout the Baltimore metropolitan area and other cities across the country.  We were able to purchased discount tickets for Earth Treks and Arundel Golf Center.
13. Local parks - Local parks are a great resource because they normally have running/biking/walking paths, playgrounds, tennis/baseball/basketball facilities, restrooms, picnic areas, water activities, etc...  Sometimes these parks host organized runs and have events there as well.  Some have admission fees and others do not.
14. Indoor playgrounds - These are often found in local malls.  Most of them have hand sanitizer stations.
15. Oriole Park - Chick-Fil-A offers a Junior Orioles Dugout Club program where you can purchase a new membership for $17.  For kids 14 and under: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/bal/fan_forum/dugoutclub.jsp
16. U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD - Offers a history lesson on the Navy.  It is beautifully updated and offers a good view of the dock.
17. Baltimore Washington International (BWI) trail and viewing area - This is a great time to teach kids about aviation and for them to see it for itself.  Some of them even have a playground area for kids to play, details here: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/greenways/bwi_trail.html
18. Ellicott City - Walk through and soak in the history and enjoy the local atmosphere and foods.
19. AMC Summer Fun Bowling Pass - Offers 2 free games per day, details here: http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/
20. Bank of America's Museum on Us program - Free museum admission if you use your Bank of America card, details here: http://museums.bankofamerica.com/
21. Apple Free Workshops - Free workshops at participating Apple stores, details here: http://www.apple.com/retail/workshops/
22. Pottery Barn Book Club: Free story time 11-1130am every Tuesday at participating stores, details here: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/customer-service/book-club.html
23. Borders free story time, see your local store.
24. Barnes and Noble free story time, see your local store.
25. National Crytologic Museum & National Vigilence Park: http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/
26. Baltimore Museum of Art - free family Sunday's between 2-4pm with free activities.
27. Anheuser-Busch Here's to the Hero's Program - complimentary one day free admission for a service member and up to 3 family members to either Sea World Orlando Orlando, Sea World San Diego or Sea World San Antonio, Busch Gardens Tampa, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, or Sesame Place, Adventure USA, Water Country USA valid through December 31, 2010.
Registration and details here: http://www.herosalute.com/cavatx/index.html
28. Every Tuesday night, can you purchase upper seating for Baltimore Orioles games at Camden Yards from Ollie's Bargain Outlet for $8, details here: http://www.olliesbargainoutlet.com/newsEvents/articleDetail.aspx?id=26&type=2
29. Read books on free download of Kindle for pc and get free book downloads from various websites.
30. Family game parties - board games, outside games, video games.
31. Pool parties.
32. Don't forget all the places that kids eat free to stretch your dollars even further.
33. 600 museums offering active duty military and their families free summer admission, details in this Washington post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052304305.html
34. Craft days at home with friends.

Our First Spring Weekend

This year, our first day of Spring was fun and busy. We did some shopping on base and picked up some home improvement items before heading home. We had lunch and started on the days work. We cleaned out, scrubbed down and brought our grill back up to speed. We purchased our grill a little less then 10 years ago.

We will be able to enjoy many more years of grilling now. We will also be able to enjoy our patio a little more on hot days this year. We were very thankful to have received a patio umbrella with base this weekend through our local freecycle.

While Mike was doing most of the scrubbing down and bringing our grill back up to speed, the kids and I were in our garden. I started out by weeding, then we moved on to digging trenches and planting. After that, I made homemade signs so we know which vegetables are where. We changed it up a lot this year and planted yellow onions, garlic, strawberries, cucumbers, hot & long peppers and some green onions. (Last year, we had a ton of roma and cherry tomatoes and jalapeno peppers.) Mike lightly watered our garden toward the evening.

I did a little freecycling in between everything else that we had going on. My items were picked up on time and found new homes this weekend. It is always great when I do not have to deal with freecycle no shows.

The kids and I were able to take advantage of the free italian ice that Rita's offered again this year. Our free root beer, sour apple and chocolate italian ice's were delicious! The line was long but it moved fast because it broke off into three windows.

Sunday, we got our daily chores done and finally put up our new medicine cabinet in our main bathroom. We had previously taken down our old medicine cabinet a few weeks ago because it was very irritating to keep opening three doors to get to our stuff. I spent some time after helping to install our cabinet lining it, putting things back in and wiping down the areas where we temporarily housed our things. It looks wonderful now! A little more work in our main bathroom and our bathroom update will be complete.

Other then that, Mike watched his race on tv (Tony came in second - yeah!), Tyler got sick and Lane and I played some games.

We had a wonderful first day of Spring weekend!