An Inexpensive Day

I'm just plain tired of spending money. (I'm sure my husband is happy to hear that.) I sometimes feel as warn out as the magnetic stripe on my credit card every time I have to hand it over to be swiped again. And I'm not just exhausted by the "things" we need to buy...new school shoes, new clothes, school supplies, lunch account balances, etc. Or the "things" we need to fix...our crashed computer, our broken lawn tractor, our broken toilet & window, my wedding band...that list seems endless as well. I'm talking about all the moola it takes just to entertain the kids for a day.

Last week Tuesday we had a completely open day with nothing to do. One of the last free days of the summer and I wanted to do something fun with the kids, but I didn't feel like spending $50 or more just to keep busy. It seems as if everywhere you go there is an admission fee or ticket cost or someway that I end up handing over my credit card....again!

So we decided to head down to Falls Park. It was a beautiful day -- finally not too hot and humid.  And the falls were roaring after all the rain we've had.  We climbed the rocks and goofed off and had a great time. We also headed to the Downtown library which was recently renovated and found some good books to check out to end the summer with.  I kicked myself for not packing a picnic to eat at the park.  That would have really perfected my "cheap" day.  Instead I did end up spending a little money at Cheds -- a quaint little joint downtown on Phillips Ave. with fabulous custom made grilled cheese sandwiches. I do love atmosphere of downtown and this was a great altnerative to Burger King which Taryn was pushing for. 

So we did it -- we had a great day on a budget.

Here are a few photos of our "cheap" day:

Just a bit of drama for you.

Take a look at the tongue, would you?  He asked me the other day if I thought he had the longest tongue in the city.  He just might!

The serious mountain climber!

As I was shooting pictures of the kids, I decided I wanted one of me with each of the kids. If you were to judge by the photos taken over the years, I'm not sure I exist. So I handed Paige the camera and she really got into it, posing us and clicking away.

Then I asked Carter to take a photo of Paige and I...suffice it to say, he would rather throw sticks...So we got exactly that...ONE photo.  Oh well!

It was good times I tell you! 

Tell me...what do you do for good free fun?

Invasion of the Giant Dragonflies

The title of this entry might lead you to believe that I have taken up science fiction writing, but that is not the case.  I am actually reporting on the real-life happenings of our quiet neighborhood and I have pictures to prove it. 

At first we were all a bit disgusted and slightly scared by the swarms of dragonflies above our heads.  But our fear soon turned to fascination as we realized they weren't going touch us.  I have no idea what caused this short lived invasion. Someone suggested that after all the rain we've had which has caused an increase in our mosquito population, they came to eat the mosquitoes. That could be...but they sure left a lot of mosquitoes behind!!  The mammoth insects started arriving around 5:00 pm and then left by dusk as quietly as they came.

It turned into quite a spectacle -- neighbor kids running around with any net they could find trying to catch these insect beasts.  There were huge fishing nets flying about and Carter created some bug catching contraption from a small minnow net attached to a long stick in order to achieve optimum height and swing.  They were so thick in the sky that one of the neighbor girls just threw up a rock into the air and knocked a dragon down.  Us parents stood in our driveways hypothesizing about where these huge bugs came from and asking "have you ever seen anything like it?"  It obviously doesn't take much to get us excited.

I'm not sure these pictures capture the massive quantities of bugs, but now you will see what we do for fun around these parts!

Here is what the invaders looked like. (You couldn't pay me enough to touch that!)

Here is what the sky looked like:

A few of our mighty warriors: