Frugal Family Outdoor Fun

When have you last taken a break from the mundane daily grind and gone outside to play with your family? Clorox2 has declared Sept. 24 to be Worldwide Day of Play and is challenging people to take their Play 2Day Pledge, http://clorox2play2day.com, and it got me thinking about some of the things we've done with Logan this summer.

We don't spend lots of money on recreational things as a family. Fun can be free too you know! And so in the spirit of being thrifty, I thought I'd share some of the simple things we've done outside as a family this summer.

Every Tuesday evening is family night here and often that finds us taking a walk downtown. Sometimes just for the sake of taking a walk and sometimes to get ice cream at our delicious local creamery. But every time it involves Logan riding the trike he got for his birthday- legs frantically pumping as he flies along. I often wish that I could freeze those moments. Him intently riding his trike, hunched forward, focused. Us walking behind, enjoying his boyishness. It's such a simple thing really, but it brings all of us such joy.

There have also been evenings where we've walked to the park 1 1/2 blocks away. Sometimes we take Logan's ball along and play ball tag and sometimes we just sit, relax and read while he amuses himself kicking his ball, throwing sticks and just running off that endless energy of his. Again, a very simple thing to do but one that provides lots of fun.

And then there are the times we just stay put here at home but end up going outside to play. Usually the favorite thing to do is play ball. I think Logan could spend hours doing that! Our yard is small but we can still find room to set up a mini baseball field. Honestly, I'm always amazed at the delight little people can get from simply spending time together playing like that. And there's something about being outside that seems to bring out extra spunk!

One more thing that we did this summer that wasn't totally free was to go mini-golfing. That is actually one of our favorite memories of the summer! Our local mini golf place has little child sized clubs and so we all three could play. Well, the youngest one of us didn't really play but he sure did have fun being like mama and daddy! And we were continually laughing and being amazed at how his wild swings could get him such good shots so often! Maybe we need to loosen up a bit and we'd get a hole in one a little more often too? At any rate, the $15 spent that evening was worth every penny of outdoor family fun.

The thing that really stands out to me as I think back to outdoor things that we did this summer is that all of them were easy to do and most of them didn't cost us a penny. It just goes to prove that having fun really can be free!

What have you done fun outside this summer with your family? Do you have creative, cheap ways of having fun outdoors?

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Clorox2® blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”