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Summer Water Fun for Kids – Slip N Slide Hack

May 18, 2018 by Stacy Craft 8 Comments

Summer Water Fun for Kids with Inexpensive Slip N Slide Hack

Summer heat. It isn’t in full swing here yet but it is coming! We have already had a couple of 90 degree days and it is still May (all my South Texas friends are probably laughing because it rarely dips below 90 there). Anyway, when it is hot, water play is on my mind for the kids.

This idea is easy to execute and involves just two main items. It will cool the kids off and keep them entertained for hours. If you need simple summer water fun for kids, this is for you!

Quick Disclaimer: Of course when your children are playing near any type of water, remember to always have them under constant supervision.

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

Check out this Awesome Summer Theme Schedule – An easy way to have fun with kids all summer long.

Summer Water Fun For Kids – Slip N Slide Hack

Last year I bought a cheap slip n slide for my then 3 year old. She did not really understand the concept of running an sliding the way that the slip n slide is intended to be used. It took me 3 days but I finally came up with a way for her to have fun using her new toy!

What you Need:

Slip N Slide

Little Tykes Slide

Baby Shampoo

Set Up Instructions

This does work best if you have any kind of small incline in your yard. We have a very small hill but it gives just enough height to help propel the kiddos down the slide. If you don’t have any kind of hill, it will still work, they just will not go quite as fast.

Place your slide in your yard (preferably at the top of a small incline).
Place the top of your slip in slide a few inches under your slide and secure it into the ground with the included spikes.
Roll out your slip in slide. I always like to check the area as I am unrolling for any big twigs or rocks that might cause boo boos for the little ones as they speed over them.
Attach your Water hose.
Wet your slide, this just helps for the first few slides. Once the kids get going, their wet bathing suits will keep the slide wet.
Drizzle the baby shampoo over the slide and the slip n slide. The baby shampoo helps to get it extra slippery so they slide down fast. You may want to reapply a few times but I don’t end up having to do it much. *Any body wash/shampoo would probably work but I use the tear free variety just in case it gets in the kiddos eyes.

Recommended Ages

I did this for the first year when my daughter was 3. She has already been doing it this year at four. The slide that we have recommends a maximum of 60 pounds so we will probably have at least a few more summers out of this little creation. I would say in general it would probably work for kids aged 3-6 or maybe small 7 year olds.

Why Not buy the Little Tikes Slide & Slip Combo

So it appears that Little Tikes can up with the same idea that I had last year.

Don’t worry, they didn’t ask my opinion and I am not a bizillionaire for my awesome slip n slide hack idea. So why not just buy what they made? Here are my thoughts:

Cheaper – On Amazon, you can buy the two items I suggested for about $6 or $7 less than the combo.
Existing Slide – The Little Tikes first slide is kind of a household staple. I feel like so many people have this for their kids already. So if you already have the slide, for less than $12 you can buy the slip n slide and have a new use for your slide that results in lots of summer water fun for kids!
Longer Slip N Slide – The Slip N Slide I use is 14 feet long. The one that comes with the combo is only 10 ft. So especially as the kids get older, the longer one will probably be a little more fun.

We have tons of Little Tikes items that we absolutely love, but for this slip n slide hack I just prefer to make my own!

Want More Fun Summer Ideas? Check these out.

Vegetable Soup Water Table Play

Flower Planting Sensory Bin

Princess Rose Petal Tea Pretend Play

Invitation to Play – Birthday Party!

2 Free Summer Fun Ideas That You Must Sign Up For Now

May 22, 2018 by Stacy Craft 1 Comment

2 Free Summer Fun Ideas That You Will Want to Sign Your Kids Up For Now!

My 4 year old just learned the word “bored.” She loves her new vocabulary word and shows it off often. Since I don’t want her to be bored all summer, I was thrilled to find 2 free summer fun ideas.

Ok, so in all fairness, I actually do not mind if my daughter is bored. I think it is good for kiddos to be occasionally bored.

It is amazing the creativity that can come out of not having every minute of every day planned by an adult. But, I’m also a realist. I need things to keep her entertained over the summer and it is a bonus if those activities are cheap or free.

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

2 Free Summer Fun Ideas to Sign up For Now

When it heats up in those early summer months, I usually let my mind drift to the pool. I blow up our inflatable toddler splash pad and set up our awesome Slip N Slide hack.

Even though water is a great way to cool down, sometimes we need a little change of pace. Here are 2 Free summer fun ideas to sign up for so that you will have built in fun all summer long.

Kids Skate Free

For this freebie, go to the Kids Skate Free site and sign up. You can look by State and city to find the closest location to you. This is all facilitated by each individually owned skating center so I am sure the rules change for each one. For example, the location that we will go has 2 weekday afternoons (2 until 8 pm) and one weekend afternoon that you can attend for free.

Even my 4 year old loves to “skate” now (holding on to the rail and walking on the rink). While she works on mastering the skill, she is building up her gross motor skills, exercising and most importantly at this point getting her wiggles out! To use this freebie, you need to go back to the site and print off a weekly pass to take to the facility for use. Not a large price to pay for this awesome freebie.

It does cost $4 per child processing when you sign up. I am not sure exactly what this goes for, I am assuming that it may be to maintenance the site. There is also a rental fee ($2 at my location) if you need to rent skates for your kids. Even with that processing fee, skating free all summer is a win!

If you take one child 5 times over the summer, you would save about $36 once you subtract the $4 processing. If you have 3 kids, that is $108! Wow.

Kids Bowl Free

Sign your kids up for 2 free games of bowling all summer long. Complete the form at the Kids Bowl Free site, where you can sign up all your kids that are 17 or under.

There is no processing fee for this, just simply pick your location, register your kids & print your coupons as needed for their two free games. You can do this all summer long! If it is free and an air conditioned location, I consider that a success.

The Kids bowl free site does give you one paid option when you process the free kid memberships. For less than $30 (this was my location and may change by site), I could sign up 4 adults to play 2 games all summer long as well.

I decided to do this because my husband and I will probably at least go together once or twice plus all the times I will take the kids solo just to get out of the house. For this one, I could sign up our two older girls, the 4 year old and both of us.

On a Sunday, the cost of a game is right at $30 so if we play two games on one Sunday we make up the cost.

If we go three Sundays over the course of the summer and play 2 games each time, we save $150! I also signed my mom and sister up two because I could sign up 4 adults for that one time fee of $30.

It is unbelievable. Adults can only bowl during Kid Free times but at my location they have WAY more times available than I will ever actually go so it is not limiting to me.

Bowling shoes are required at most facilities. If you don’t have shoes, the rental fee is usually around $3 a rental.

Summer Savings – How Much will I Save?

It depends on how many times you go to these 2 free summer fun ideas.

If you go just a couple of times to each, you can easily save $50 to $100. If you go a lot or have a bunch of kids, you will save even more!

Since we have a big family when my step daughters are with us, I love frugal ideas where we can go and have fun but not spend an arm and a leg.

More Fun Activities to Do At Home!

Need some more summer fun ideas? Try some of our favorites.

Vegetable Soup Water Table Play

4th of July Graham Cracker Flag

Gardening Sensory Bin

Weekly Summer Schedule for Kids

Unique Father’s Day Gift Featuring A Custom Fragrance

June 9, 2018 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

A unique Father’s Day Gift Featuring A Custom Fragrance

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

I just ordered a unique Father’s Day gift for my husband that I wanted to share with you all. We all know that it is tough year after year finding something fun and interesting for the Daddy of your babies! Sometimes it feels like I buy the same grill set or polo shirt year after year. But not this time!

I was actually scrolling through Facebook last weekend and an ad popped up from Hawthorne. Maybe I am living under a rock but I had never heard of that company. The ad intrigued me so I clicked and I am so glad that I did. In just a couple of minutes, a custom fragrance set was on its way just in time for Father’s Day.

How Does It Work?

Head to their website. You will complete a quick profile of your guy. They ask questions about his diet, cocktail of choice, and his work environment. It takes about 5 minutes to fill out the questions, maybe less.

Then Hawthorne presents a set of fragrance options customized to your man for you to choose. There is a “Work” cologne and a “Play” cologne option. You can choose to purchase one or you get a discount if you buy both. I went ahead and tried the combo set that included the Work & Play fragrance set.

Unique Father’s Day Gift – Custom Cologne Set

What’s Inside?

The packaging really added to the product itself. When I opened the brown shipping box, inside was a nice black and white graphic with my husband’s name handwritten inside.

The cologne comes in a black box with a simple white “Hawthorne” logo in the bottom right corner. Once you open that, a note shows that this is a gift from me to him. It also gives a short detail about the makers of his custom scent.

If you turn this card over, the scent profile (from the answers that I provided online) are hand circled.

The sleek black box that holds the cologne bottles opens to reveal both bottles. The bottles are nestled in the box lined in velvet.

The scent is of course the most important part when selecting a fragrance. Buying a fragrance online that I had no experience with was a little scary, but I am so glad I took the plunge. The scents for both are much more than I expected and I think my husband will love it.

The Play is probably my favorite but I like both. The play that we received is a warm scent with just a tiny hint of spicy sweet. The Work is a light and fresh smelling cologne. Both scents are appealing and I think they make a unique and interesting Father’s Day gift.

Do you have a unique Father’s Day gift idea for this year?

Weekly Summer Schedule for Kids

May 31, 2020 by Stacy Craft 3 Comments

This themed weekly summer schedule for kids has activities for every day of the work week to keep children busy.

Summertime brings a more laid back schedule for a lot of us. No more packing lunches, homework and getting kids ready for school.

But the dreaded “I’m bored” statement may start early and you will want to be prepared.

I’m not saying you should plan every minute of every day. I actually think it is great for kids to be bored sometimes because it encourages them to get creative and find joy in something that they orchestrate.

However, it helps me to have a general idea of something that I can direct the kids to do either while I’m working or that we can do together as a family. Something that I don’t have to think much about and that I can rattle off or set up quickly.

And just like meal plans help in the dinner rush, a weekly summer schedule for kids is a great way to have some ideas up your sleeve to get kids up, active and having fun during the summer months.

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

Follow Me on Pinterest for More fun Ideas!

Weekly Summer Schedule for Kids

Make your days a little easier with a plan for the long days of summer.

These theme days will help you create a weekly summer schedule for kids that is fun and active while keeping things simple for you.

Merry Monday

Kids got a case of the Monday’s? Make it a Merry Monday by doing something nice! Help a sibling with a task, write a letter or draw a picture for a nursing home, help a neighbor.

Another fun way to be merry is to find something to celebrate! An unbirthday would be a great way to have fun on the cheap. Make a cake, sing Happy Birthday. Make birthday cards. You could even let the kids find a gift around the house to wrap up for each other!

Typical & Tidy Tuesday

Just like I don’t believe in planning every hour of my kid’s summer, I also think a “down” day is good for kids.

This is just a day to chill. Entertain yourself, tidy your room, help with a chore around the house.

If cleaning all day is not your kid’s idea of fun, you can also take a twist on the “typical.” Go back to the old school typical days of summer.

Build a fort, play in a sprinkler or with the water hose, play outside, color a picture, or play hopscotch. Just good old traditional fun.

Work Out/Water Wednesday

Wednesday is another that has 2 options depending on your mood or schedule.

You can do all kinds of thing with this day!

Ideas for Kid Work Out times:

Complete an episode of Cosmic Kids, take a bike ride, head to the park to play, take a nature walk or create an obstacle course for the kids to complete.

Ideas for Water Wednesday:

Go swimming, play in a sprinkler or splash pad, try this awesome slip N slide hack for young kids, make vegetable soup in your water table, or try out one of the best backyard water toys for kids.

Try It Thursday

This day is all about trying out something new.

Test out a new recipe, make a craft or complete an at home science experiment.

Fun Friday

After a long week, a fun day is a great way to end the week with a bang.

Go on an outing to the zoo or a museum. Grab a special treat like ice cream or even just a candy bar at the gas station that the kid’s get to pick.

Have a play date with a friend or take a trip to the playground.

Need More Kid Fun?

Summer Activities to Do With Kids As a Working Mom

Rose Petal Tea Sensory Bin

The Best Sports Toys for Toddlers

Pretend Birthday Party Invitation To Play

June 4, 2020 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

Do your kids talk about their upcoming birthday for 364 days of the year?

If so, they will love this pretend birthday party invitation to play where they can celebrate any day of the year.

Things like sensory bins and invitations to play are things that probably never heard of until you had a child.

And then you realized you were supposed to be doing these activities in order to encourage learning and development. Great, one more thing to worry about.

The good news is that there are tons of ideas for playtime on Pinterest to make things easy.

I actually really like dreaming up sensory bins for the kids & we have done things like Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal pies, Cookie Cereal Baking Bin, Vegetable Soup Water Table Play and Taste Safe Infant finger painting.

But as much as I love coming up with ideas, my kids actually made up the pretend birthday party invitation to play.

They came up with this all on their own after a real birthday party last year. I got out some stuff today for them to do it again & they had just as much fun as the first time.

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

Pretend Birthday Party – Invitation To Play

The pretend birthday party invitation to play is so easy and requires very little prompts from the parent. After I provided the supplies, my kids played “birthday party” for 45 minutes straight!

I will give you the materials that we used & then give you some play prompts if you need them.

Pretend Birthday Party Materials:

Recycled Gift Bags (I use the ones that are on their last leg and not something I would reuse again at a Birthday Party)
A few sheets of tissue paper
A roll of gift wrap (we used old Christmas paper but you could grab a roll at the Dollar Tree too)
Tape
Scissors (if Age Appropriate)
Balloons (again if age appropriate)

I put those items out and tell my kids to play birthday party.

How to Host a Pretend Birthday Party for Kids

To play birthday party, you first need to “shop” your toys for something to give.

Next, you wrap that gift. My kids love to wrap with wrapping paper or arrange it in a gift bag. It is something that I usually do if we are going to a real party and apparently it seems super cool to the kids.

Now it is party time!

Play Prompts for Party Time

If your kids are struggling to come up with something on their own or if you like to give more structured instructions, here are some play prompts that you can use during this activity.

My kids did the following:

Welcomed their pretend friends to their pretend party.
Dressed up in themed clothing (My son chose a hero party so my daughter wore a cape & he wore a fire fighter outfit)
Made a Birthday lunch, cake and ice cream in their play kitchen.
Sang Happy Birthday before eating their cake.
The Birthday Boy/Girl opened their presents
Pretended to play birthday games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey
Played toss the Balloon

Some more ideas:

Have the children make birthday cards with paper and crayons
Decorate the room with homemade decorations
Make a real cake together, complete with candles & celebrate with a yummy dessert.

My kids played for almost an hour with this pretend birthday party invitation to play. I did interact some but for the most part they were able to entertain themselves with the activity which allowed me a little bit of time to get other things done.

More Sensory Activities for Kids:

Rose Petal Princess Tea

Plant a Flower Garden Bin