As much as we’d love to be a Disney family, high tailing it off to Orlando a few times a year, that’s not really practical for most of us, is it? No, and even if you do, there will be plenty of time between to fill up with memories at home.

Here are 3 things I’ve found lately to have a BLAST with my children without spending much money at all and without leaving our house.

4 Almost Free Ways to Spend Time Together as a Family

Board Games

This one can be even cheaper than you think. I buy almost all of our games at Goodwill or other local thrift stores. Part of Daniel’s birthday gift this year was an Angry Birds game I found for $3.95 at Goodwill. Maybe $3.95 doesn’t sound cheap, but when you figure the whole family could play it, it was in perfect condition, and retail it would have been more like $34, it starts to sound like a steal.

This morning we paid Spongebob Monopoly, and while 3 of 4 boys quit early on from boredom, Daniel hung in there and beat me SOUNDLY.

So did everyone have fun? Sort of. Everyone did for a little while. And one of them had the special honor of beating mom. Also, he learned so much about counting money and making change.

Playing Sports Outside…..and yeah, sometimes inside

What we play depends on what they are into at the time. Last year it was always baseball. Now it’s mostly basketball, but lately we’ve been all about badminton.

Here’s my best tips for introducing your kids to badminton or tennis:

1. Buy any racquets at thrift stores. Thrift stores almost always have tennis rackets, and when you are playing at home, you can totally play badminton with big giant tennis rackets. In fact, it makes it easier for the kids to hit the birdie.
2. If you don’t have a net, designate a line on the driveway as your “net”. By the way, the one above is a nice one. You can also buy super cheap ones, but I can’t vouch for how good they will be, but they might be better than just the line on the driveway. Ha!
3. Our family just used the crack in the driveway as our “net” until we had time to go buy a net.

Most sports can be simulated at home without actually owning the equipment. In most cases, you just need a ball.

ABSOLUTELY FREE: CHARADES!!!

Alan took some papers, cut them into squares and wrote names of people we know, movies we’ve watched, and places we’ve been to on them. Then he made a paper bag for each category, and put the papers in the bags for us to draw out.

The boys LOVED it. It was more personal this way. We used family members, and then they’d act out what they’ve noticed about those family members. The cutest was when they were being their cousin Wesley, and they got on their knees, to show they were short, and then went around hugging everyone! Ha!!!

For places, we used random ones like the driveway, the pumpkin patch, and places we used to live. Just talking about it makes me want to do this again. We all laughed so much.

Include the little ones too. Just whisper in their ear how to act it out. As long as there’s one person to guess, you’re good. When toddlers get involved, I promise it will be hilarious. They may even announce to everyone who they are being, like JD does, and that’s okay.

Turn something they LOVE into a family activity!

Light sabers? Family jousting tournament

Legos? Building contest! And name a different prize for each kid. Maybe even make little construction paper ribbons.

Dancing? Dance Party.

For example, the ever so obnoxious BOTTLE FLIPPING!!

Does any mom or teacher out there not hate this activity? Why? It’s loud. It’s annoying, and it always spills water.

Did you know they make games for Bottle Flipping? As in board-game like games? They do!

 
I decided to give this a shot. This is the very first time I had ever attempted to flip a bottle, and I’m here to tell you it is way HARDER than it looked! I have new respect.

Best of all, my older boys got a real kick out of me participating in bottle flipping with them. My oldest wasn’t even going to play with us at first, but once he saw us having fun, he joined in and then insisted that we play again.

In fact, I want you all to join in on this fun, so this week we are giving the Bottle Flippin’ Game away for FREE to one of you!

***This giveaway is sponsored by the Bottle Flip Game.***

I love giveaways!!!

To enter just Log in with Facebook or your email below, and click one of the options. If you have trouble, just send me your email address, and I’ll enter ya.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!!

The post 4 Almost Free Ways to Spend Time Together as a Family + Giveaway appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD bonded with another dirt-loving two-and-a-half-year old at one of Daniel’s games. Don’t you love those moments when you come across another bird with your same feathers?

The vast majority of these photos were taken by our family photographer, Aunt Janet.  Thank you, yet again, Janet!!

Baseball season has been time-consuming but joyous this year. Joshua joined a team late in the season that was short on players because after seeing his brothers enjoy playing so much, he wanted in on this action too! That puts Joshua in the “Mustang” league, which is an exciting game to watch. At this level, the players get to pitch, get out in three strikes, and even steal bases.

Caleb and his buddy, Aiden, are having a ball in their league as well. Alan is their coach, and Caleb and Aiden have some mad serious baseball skills. In fact, we were so confident in these two that we let them also play for Joshua’s team last week, as their team needed a couple of back-ups, and Caleb and Aiden held their own. They may be the youngest players on the team, but you’d never know it. Both boys scored one point for Joshua’s team, and the funny part was that Caleb even struck out and still scored a run. How? Well, when the catcher dropped the ball, Caleb stole first base! I didn’t know you can do that either, but I saw it with my own eyes.

Daniel is in a tee-ball league. I may not fully understand all the baseball rules, but by golly I’ve got tee-ball down pat, and so does Dan. I love to watch him catch the ball and throw it to first base. (See those cleats? Those were Joshua’s when he played tee-ball!)

Nonna and Aunt Janet got to see Caleb and Daniel’s games.

It was super cold!

By the way, my nails have been quite the hit.

I may not play ball, but I do support it. 🙂

Okay. I just realized I had promised 17 Mile Drive and Seal Pups in this post. Next time! Really really!

The post Game Day Photos appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Did the first week of school hit any of you as hard as it did us? Phew!

I do want to say thank you for your prayers. By Friday morning, I felt like I was myself again. That battle is finished, and I can’t tell you how much your prayers and letters of encouragement meant to me.

Now it’s on to the next thing, right?

My mom has arrived, and she is downstairs taking care of JD and Daniel for me. When I left to come up here, Daniel was begging Nana for “suyup toast.” That’s french toast, for those of you who do not speak Daniel.

With three boys going into fall ball this year, what better time for a Giveaway of cleaning products?

We do love to get dirty.

But actually, they are all playing soccer this fall instead of baseball. Either way, I will be doing TONS of laundry.

Ha! It’s funny what things excite me at my age. Offers for baby products? Eh… Offers for breastfeeding products?  Well….

Offers for stain remover, HOLD THE PHONE!!  Did someone just offer me cleaning products!? YES! Send them right away. I will be happy to write you a review!

Supplies ready!

First, I tried it out on chocolate:

Chocolate Before

As you can see, it worked extremely well on chocolate, 100%:

Chocolate stains after the Espro

I also had great success using it as a carpet cleaner. The carpet in my dining room is my #1 nemesis. Who puts carpet in a dining room??? It’s not like we have an eat-in kitchen, either. This is where we eat.

Such is the life of a renter…

After, at a glance

My carpet has a blotchy color anyway, so it was hard to get a good photo. I was able to get up 98% of the stains with the Espro.  I just sprayed, scrubbed, and vacuumed.

You can easily tell, in this photo, where I used the cleaner and where I didn’t.

With the dirt yard that my boys are constantly tracking through, my carpet takes an insane beating. I make them take their shoes off in the house, but it still gets extremely dirty.

I was very pleased with Espro’s ability to clean the bad spots out of the carpet. I regret that I didn’t get a “before” picture…Well, I mean, sort of. That would actually be kind of embarrassing…

I was also impressed with Espro as a stain remover. It got 90% of the dirt that ‘Dirt Boy’ embedded into his t-shirt, and it was especially effective at little unidentified spots on the boys’ clothing.

Now here are the quick facts you may want to know about stain removal. I have found these tips to be highly beneficial over the years. 

Cold Water is best for:

blood,

dairy products, and

body fluids

HOT Water is best for:

mega dirty anything (except blood),

cloth diapers,

grease or oil stains

And a few fast facts for the ESPRO Sports Cleaner:

• Environmentally friendly: no bleach, butyl, phosphates, chlorinated, petroleum. or other ozone depleting solvents
• Can also be used as just an odor eliminator
• Safe for use on all fabrics, even silk
• Safe to use around pets and children
• Will not harm colors
• Used by over 100 Collegiate sports teams

Also, this company is based in Alabama and Georgia, and the products are  manufactured right here in the USA. 

I hope you will find the Espro Sports cleaner as helpful as I have! You can buy it at many Walmarts. However, just in case yours doesn’t carry it, here’s a link to where you can order online:   esproclean.com/shop/

Now it’s time for the Giveaway!!! Here’s what you could win:

The Deluxe Package: 

The Deluxe Package is an upgrade of the $10 TV Special. The Deluxe Package includes: One 64oz Refill Bottle, One 32oz Spray Bottle, One Stain Wipes Pack (12), Two Microfiber Towels. A $35 value.

The Giveaway winner will receive all of this, but the 2nd bottle of Espro will be MUCH bigger.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’d like to enter, but you have trouble, send me an email, and I will enter you manually. Thanks!!!

The post Back To Fall Sports Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.