Take a walk, play a game, draw some pictures, bake some cookies...

What simple ways do you have fun as a family?

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We like to jump on the trampoline together, go to the park, go to church, and we eat dinner together at least several times a week (the older your kids get, the more activities they are in, and with a dh who works out of town often, this is a huge thing for us!). Oh, and Daddy says a prayer with all the kids at once at night...every night that he is here..and when he is not here, it is precious to hear the kids take over...they can mimic him almost word for word. It is a serious thing, but also fun, since there is always laughing and tickling after..and we learn what our CHILDREN want us to pray for...from THEIR prespective. It is something I think they will always carry with them. These are just a few that I can think of.

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Great timing for this post. We had a great "simple fun family day" yesterday. We went to the park and school playground, went for a bike ride together, stopped at Wendy's for a frosty as an afternoon treat, read books together and we colored a lot together. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed it. We just focused our attention on Sarah and doing fun things with her rather than putting her off so we could do housework, computer time, etc. The best part of it all is that when we focus more on Sarah rather than pushing her to the back burner, her behavior is wonderful. We had a great day and it cost us $2 to get in the park and $3 for our frostys. We also got a lot of great exercise that we all need.

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Jennifer
dd Sarah 1/4/02
ds Brady 1/15/07

We usually go to the park or the school playground or the beach with dd and the dog. Those are the times we all laugh the most and have fun together. Sometimes we just go for walks or all play in the yard together. Yesterday we decided to go 3 towns over from ours for dinner and we thought it would be fun to ride the train! It was dd's FIRST train ride on a "real" train. She loved every minute of it.
I wanted to add we go to the San Francisco zoo a lot for fun (and we have a membership so we get in free). We all always have fun going to the zoo!

We do alot of simple, free things as a family as well. Bike riding, natuire walks, packed picnic lunches and board games are some of our favorites.
~~~I also wanted to mention that if you get a family membership to a museum that is affiliated with AZA and ASCTI you get in free to reciprocal museums, science centers, zoos and aquariums. We live in PA and get a membership to the Boonshoft Museum in OHIO...this gets us in free to the places near us, e.g. Philly Zoo, NJ and Baltimore Aquariums, Franklin Institite, Liberty Science Center etc. ( and many more) The trick is you have to get the membership at a place that's far from where you live. We paid $69.00 for a Voyager Family Membership from and we get to use it for 1 year at all the places near us. We would spend almost that much to to visit one of the places, plus you can use it as many times as you like throughout the year. We always pack a lunch to take with us and leave it in the car in a cooler. Here's the link to the Boonshoft website if you're interested http://www.boonshoftmuseum.org/
Hope this helps save some of you some $$$$$$

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WAHM to Richie, Becca & Ryan!

Yes, Memphis Zoo is on that list or another like it. We like to go there as a family, too. This weekend would have been perfect if we had not already had water park tickets as a family and then had a huge cookout at our house yesterday! Maybe we can do that next weekend. We are loving this cooler weather right now!

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The beach at night.

Every fall when it starts to cool down a little we take our kids bikes and go to a local park. They have a bike/walking path that roams through a very nice wetland. Last year Wyatt was still in the stroller so this year he'll get to take his scooter. We will probably start going in the next week or so.

Our neighbors have goats....and we like to walk down and see them.

Oh and right now we are having fun trying to teach our dumb little doggy how to shake. Hahaha!!! Will he ever get it??? Haha.

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Jodie....Wife to Andrew (1995)
Mommy to Riley (2000) and Wyatt (2003)

EVERY night we have dinner together and EVERY night we go for a walk after dinner. Our dd's have come to expect this routine, and it gets us all out exercising together. Our 4-year old has just learned to ride a bike without training wheels so I can see many evening bike rides in our future as well. The family that plays together stays together