I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom!

I love the movie Mean Girls, and when I say love I mean I have it memorized. At 32, am I too old to love it so much? Heck no, that movie is the best! Not only do I own it, but if it is on I boot the boys to another room and watch it for the umpteenth time. One of my favorite lines is Regina's mom "I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom."

Towards the end of the school year I started feeling....."blah" about my house, life, etc. I swear everyone else's house is nicer, they have a better car, nicer furniture, their kids wear socks that match.....just ugh! Well there's not too much I can do it about it. I'm not buying anything nice until these boys have moved out. They have ruined everything, things I didn't even think could be broken- oh yeah they proved me wrong. So until then what can I do? I figured I can at least make myself look nice. I can't even wave to people at school in the morning because I literally didn't even take 3 minutes to brush my hair before I dropped my kids off and I'm embarrassed to be seen in public. Pajamas, glasses, sometimes not even shoes. I mean if you aren't getting out of the car and are headed back home to watch the Young and The Restless why really try?

NO MORE! I am starting the "No More Lazy Mom, Only Cool Mom" brigade. I have been on Pinterest like crazy the last 2 months. Have you been on Pinterest....ha ha just kidding, I know you have spent hours on there too. I have actually been testing the things I find to see if they are "Mom" approved. With 3 kids do you really think I have time to draw little bows on my nails or add jewels? Pssshhhh! It is my goal to find realistic, easy ways for moms to beautify themselves so we aren't tossing a hat on our head for the 5th day in a row. We are gorgeous, our kids just make it hard to show it sometimes! This isn't about looking better than another mom, or showing anyone up. This is about YOU and how you feel about yourself.

If you haven't found me on Pinterest yet do so now, I have a board called "No more lazy mom, only cool mom." As I complete an idea I will post about it and pin my results. It's a win-win for you! Not only do you get to see your favorite pins completed, but if it fails it is me rocking out smudged eyeliner and not you. Right now the board is filled with ideas I think are doable until I get some of the tutorials made.

Until then, rock out your Mom Jeans ladies because we will be sending then to Goodwill soon!

Cheap things to do this summer

Now that we've gone over 100+ free things to do this summer, let's explore the cheap ones. I didn't really have a budget in mind here, but these are the things I could think of that would cost at least gas, food or a reasonable amount of money.

RANDOM FUN

• Many places offer 2 free games of bowling every day all summer! You will just need to pay for shoes and possibly drinks. Check AMF, and kidsbowlfree.com. Brunswick offers 1 game a day.
• Chuck E Cheese. If you go to just play it's not bad, basically everything is just 25 cents. Also if you are like me I cruise around and pick up all the bonus tickets I see on the floor shibby! CEC also offers a ton of charts where your kids can earn 10 tokens for completing something cool. I love that they offer a "No Nose Picking" one now. Sadly as a mom of boys....it is needed. They also offers coupons if you do want to eat.
• Fast food playplace. You are probably thinking, shouldn't this be on the free list? Possibly, but how many of us every really go and don't end up buying ice cream, a drink or even a full on meal? I tell my boys they get X and that's what we do. It's air conditioned, a controlled environment, a bathroom and you can take a book, or your laptop.
• Rollerskating. What's up junior high flashback?! This is pretty cheap and most places offer fun themes, discount days & more.
• Local Rec Center. Lots of fun things to do for a couple bucks each. If you get a membership you can save even more. 
• Search summer pass and your city's name. 
• Go to a festival. Again this could be free but you are bound to buy something there. 
• Visit the farmers market.
• Go garage sale hopping. Visit garagesalefinder.com to find them and even map out your route.
• Take a mini vacation to a family members house. 
• Take a road trip through the mountains or country. 
• Have a lemonade stand. Bonus points: hold one for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
• Take cookies to the fire station or donuts to the police station.
• Tye-Dye clothes.
• Make jewelry. Use your own beads or pick up a few in the clearance section of the craft store. 
• Have a shaving cream fight.
• Build a Fairy House. I am dying to do this!
• Make a working volcano
• Go to another city and explore. Window shop, get an ice cream, check out their park. 
• Go camping.
• Make milkshakes or sundaes. 
• Play mini-golf
• Buy a family membership to your favorite place in town, the one you know you will go to 15 times and it will be totally worth the money. Ours is the zoo.

MOVIES

• Regal offers $1 movies Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 AM. Sign up for their Crown Club and you can even credits for free popcorn, sodas & more.
• Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse. 10 movies for $5 (AWESOME) or $1 each if paid at the door. 
•  Carmike has $4 kids movies
• If you have a drive-in near you they are freakin amazing! You get to pull in with your mom van, bring food, snacks and see typically at least 2 movies. There aren't too many left anymore so get to one if you can!
• Check out your local discount movie theater. That is the #1 place we go when we see movies.  

COUPONS AND DEALS

• You can literally type in the place you want to go, plus coupon and you are bound to find one. 
• Groupon. I am a little embarrassed to say I didn't know Groupon offered discounts to places like bounce houses, mini golf & etc. I recently found out and have been stocking up for the summer. If you get waaaay too many emails from these deals sites check out Yipit. It is a giant mash up of all the sites AND you get to check your preferences which is nice. 
• You can get coupons for all kinds of things on Ebay. Including fast food, restaurants, attractions and more. Just be sure you check for any restrictions (like excluded states) and expiration dates.

DINING DEALS

• Visit My Kids Eat Free or Kids Eat 4 Free and don't worry about dinner.  If you don't find much close to you pick a bigger city and you should get more of the national deals. 
• 50 cent ice cream cones at Burger King until Aug 5th.
• EatDrinkDeals.com lists tons of offers and coupons.

Ok well that is my cheap list, I hope it helps you out. As always if I am missing something please let me know and I can add it!

100+ Free Things to do this summer

Ahhh.....summer break! Although I have the kids at home fighting all day I am SO happy to have the reprieve from all the meetings, clubs, appointments & etc. I still like to keep us busy and there are a million lists of free things to do. I've really thought mine through and listed only things that are free or you should have around the house. We will be doing a few of these each week and I will post pictures, free printables and more to go along with them, so make sure you check back! Plus later in the week I will be posting a list of Cheap things to do for summer and a list of things for mom.

THINGS TO MAKE

1. Check out and make Flat Stanley
2. An indoor or outdoor obstacle course
3. Write and Illustrate your own story book
4. Make Pet/Monster/Picnic Blanket Rocks
5. Rainbow crayons from your old crayons
6. Paper planes
7. A Scrapbook
8. Puzzles/mazes
9. A home movie
10. Goop, Play-dough, or finger paints
11. Popsicles, cupcakes, cookies
12. Make a flip book
13. Have a lego or block building contest
14. Leaf rubbings
15. Trace your bodies in chalk and then decorate yourself
16. A tent
17. A Kite
18. Press flowers and make them into stationary/cards
19. A Sundial
20. Hats or masks
21. Start a summer diary to remember all this awesomeness!
22. Your own music video to your favorite song
23. A comic book
24. A Time capsule
25. S'Mores
26. A collage
27. Silhouette Cameos. Make them of yourselves, then try toys and more.
28. A dream board
29. Your own board game

THINGS TO DO

1. Geocaching
2. Letterboxing
3. Find a pen pal and write them a letter. Try Students of the World or PenPal World. Always monitor your child's correspondence and be careful when giving out personal information online.
4. Make a card and send it to a family member or friend
5. Have a sleepover
6. Volunteer. VolunteerMatch.org is my favorite to use.
7. Visit the pet store
8. Have a treasure/scavenger hunt
9. Catch bugs (and let them go)
10. Go on a Park Passport tour (this printable will be available soon!)
11. Explore the neighborhood
12. Feed ducks, birds and squirrels at the park (I know you aren't supposed to feed them but don't we all?)
13.  Join your local library's summer reading program, also Barnes and Noble, Pottery Barn, Sylvan (bonus they test the kids after they've read the book so you know they aren't cheating ;) Pizza Hut Book-It (TONS of printables relating to specific books and lots more) Half Price Books.com (earn a $5 credit woo hoo)
14. Go to a story time
15. Make prank calls to family and friends (ONLY the ones who will be OK with it)
16. Complete 5 random acts of kindness
17. Take the dog for a walk
18. Hunt for four leaf clovers
19. Have a family awards ceremony
20. Have a photo prop session. The Party Event has tons of ideas you can use.
21. Trace pictures from a book and then color them in
22. Copy a famous painting
23. Go on a hike
24. Take your favorite toy on an adventure. Take pictures of it in the grocery store, the park, & etc. At the end of summer you can make a photo book of everywhere it went.
25. Have a birthday party for your pet or favorite toy
26. Donate some of your old books to the children's hospital
27. Go on a picnic
28. Find a free concert in the park
29. Plant Seeds
30. Read a Dr. Seuss book backwards (Hilarious!)
31. Have a toy/book/clothing swap party
32. Find a free VBS
33. Download the Storia App and get 5 free e-books
34. Find a book that has been made into a movie. Spend a week or so reading the book then watch the movie and see how they compare.
35. Find an episode of one of your favorite shows on YouTube, or something "vintage" like Smurfs- a personal fav of mine
36. Star gaze, learn the constellations and the moon phases
37. Make up your own holiday
38. Find a local free day event
39. Have a tea party
40. Camp in your back yard
41. Find a free factory tour
42. Earn some Chuck E Cheese tokens
43. Have a pajama day, even let them go to the store like that (like we don't already do this right?)
44. Paint with water
45. Join Postcrossing and exchange post cards all over the world.
46. Join Swapbot. You can search for swaps just for kids. NOTE: there will be some shipping depending on the swap so keep that in mind.

THINGS TO PLAY

1. Tic Tac Toe
2. Bingo
3. Have a Pillow Sack Race
4. Have friends over for a playdate
5. Go Fish
6. Play in the sprinkler
7. Have a dance party
8. Make and have a puppet show
9. Play Memory
10. Old Maid
11. Sing Karaoke
12. Play School House (ironic kids like to play this in the summer!)
13. Make your own Summer Olympics
14. Hot potato
15. Play Car Wash (BONUS your car gets clean!)
16. Dress Up
17. Have a Fake Accent Day
18. Jump Rope
19. Hopscotch
20. Play mahjong online (or find another free game)
21. Charades
22. Have a family/neighborhood talent show
23. Tag/freeze tag
24. Truth or Dare
25. Jacks
26. Hangman

THINGS TO LEARN

1. How to Zentangle. Tanglepatterns.com is my favorite site.
2. How to skip rocks
3. Research another country/religion
4. Learn useful phrases in a new language
5. Learn basic sign language
6. A new song
7. Origami
8. A magic trick
9. Juggling
10. Tying knots
11. Bird Watching
12. How to play chess
13. A new word every day
14. A new math fact every day
15. Teach your kiddos the basics of your computer, Word programs & etc.
16. Pig Latin
17. How to meditate
18. Learn kitchen measurements, cups, teaspoons, gallons, ounces & etc.
19. The rules to a new sport, or one you love
20. A new craft- painting, sewing, knitting, drawing, etc.

NATIONAL FREEBIES
Check with your local place to be sure before you go
Home Depot- Free kids workshop 1st Saturday of every month
Lowe's- Build & Grow classes for kids
Michael's- Lot's of different free in-store make and take projects
Toys R Us has free events every now & then
The Disney Store has occasional events. Check your local store for events
Lakeshore Learning- Free crafts for kids every Saturday
Pottery Barn free events
Lego Store Free monthly mini model build and other events. These are insanely popular so check with your local store to see if they hand out tickets before hand or how early you need to show up.
The Apple store teaches classes and has learning camps on occassion
American Girl store offers crafts & fun events
Bass Pro Shop offers crafts and lots of fun events


Phew! I worked my tush off on this list! If you have more ideas send them my way. Don't forget to come back for the list of cheap fun and treats just for mom.

Welcome!

Yeah for my first blog post :) How many blogs do I read....like a million? Why have I not blogged until now....I have no idea. So as with most things I do, let's just start this on a whim!

I am a stay at home mom to 3 wonderfully crazy, out of control, messy boys. Did I mention messy? Because I mean the kind of dirty where I want to run them through the drive-in car wash kind of gross. I swear, only a power washer could get my middle one clean. Anyway, I refer to them as L (7), D (5) and J (1.5), and my husband is P. As for me, I get a whole name (cuz I'm awesome), it's Amanda Faith.

Right now I am pretty busy, in addition to our daily out of control life. Yeah I know....what was I thinking?!!! I truly enjoy everything I do but if you ever want to hear about someone having a breakdown....then stay tuned.

So please join me for what I am sure will be lots of kid-fueled posts, laughs, mishaps and more as I try to keep my sanity.

Thanks for joining me!