LouFamFun $10 Challenge – July

July 30, 2013 Family Fun

When I decided to take on the challenge of spending $10 for family fun in Louisville, the brainstorming and internet searching began. What could we do that my kids (10 months, 3, and 5) would have a blast and fun childhood memories? This summer my two oldest (boys) are into making mud soup and being pirates. My 10-month-old loves being wherever her brothers and I are, so she is pretty easy to please.

With the ideas rolling in my head, I let the spending begin! I went to Lowe’s and bought 3 40lbs bags of top soil, totaling $3.75. I took the rest of the money to the Dollar Tree and bought 3 cans of shaving cream and 1 packet of little plastic lizards, totaling $4. I let the boys each pick one toy to entertain themselves on the way home since we have to drive through construction, so total spent:$9.75.

After questions from my boys, I filled them in on what we were doing with all this randomness. We were hosting a MESSY PLAYDATE with our FRIENDS! My oldest was so excited about this that he lost sleep the night before the playdate. He woke my husband and I up at 4am to ask if it was morning yet!

Using the stuff around the house and the stuff I bought, we had several messy stations to entertain the 13 kids that showed up in my backyard.

The stations were:

1. a slide in a baby pool with mud

2. a wheelbarrow filled with 2 bags of the top soil with the lizards buried in it for the kids to search for, shovels to dig in it, small buckets to fill

3. the wheelbarrow was next to our water table so they could make mud or dirt soup

4. finger painting station with rocks and sticks

5. bubble station with homemade bubbles and an automatic bubble blower (Thanks to my friend, Maleah!)

6. another painting station where you could step in paint and walk across the long, big paper that Amazon uses for packaging

7. balloons filled with water and shaving cream for the kids to pop

8. a shaving cream slide – a kid favorite (Thanks to my friend, Tanya, for the extra slide and idea!)

This was a fun, unique playdate that was well worth the effort. I think it may become an annual event using their favorite stations from this year and trying out new ones. My kids will be able to enjoy a few of the stations for a couple of more weeks too.

Once our friends left, I had one more thing up my sleeve for my kids and my 7-year-old niece who happened to visiting us – A TREASURE HUNT! As I passed their maps to them, I spoke to them in pirate telling them, “there is some treasure buried on these parts and here is the map. Rrrrr.” I had left a piece paper at each location that had a drawing on it on where the next clue was located. I made sure they went from downstairs to outside to inside several times. The treasure was buried in the wheelbarrow with the top soil with a shaving cream ‘X’ on top where it was buried. I used my daughter’s baby food jars to put some candy in it as the treasure. The kids loved it! Now that is how you stretch the dollar and have some Louisville Family (and FRIEND) Fun!

By guest contributor: Jeanette

It's fun to share: