Summer Fun with the kids! Day One: Rainbow Day

Next year, my youngest son Jackson, will be in full day Kindergarten.  So this is the last Summer I have before all three of my kids go back to full day school.  My mommy heart isn't taking it all to well.  So in order to smother spend as much time as possible with them until the next school year starts, I'm determined to have a fun filled summer this year.  Dedicated to spending more time, more quality time, with each of them over these next few months.

With spring/summer being my busiest time photographing families & weddings, I knew I would have to start planning early on in order to be prepared for the first week of summer.  A few years ago, when Zaine & Dylan were younger, and Jackson was just a baby, I used to follow a blog that really inspired me!    http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ 

Of course this was way before Facebook and Pinterest, and before most people followed blogs religiously.  What I loved most about the blog, was that she used everyday items that you most likely already have in your house, to create fun filled days for toddlers.  She would always include a craft/activity and recommend a book to go along with the subject of the day.  Since we are huge fans of our local library, this made most days activities 100% free, which is right in my price range!   So my goal this summer, is to have an activity/craft/treat/book & movie all based around one subject for each day of the summer (leaving a few days off here and there so that we can truly appreciate some lazy summer days).  This of course will also only be from Monday-Friday leaving weekends to family time and allowing me to still schedule photo sessions throughout the summer.

I'm currently narrowing down our activities for a small "Welcome, Summer!" party that we will be having when the kids get home from school on Friday. Hopefully I will get a chance to post those details later this week. But for now, I have gotten everything together for our first full week of summer and thought I would share my inspiration with you!

Our themes for our first week are as follows:
Monday - Rainbows Day
Tuesday - Despicable Me/Egg Fun Day
Wednesday - Lazy Summer Day
Thursday - Post Office Day
Friday - Bike Adventure Day

Our first day will be this upcoming Monday. And this is the inspiration sheet I came up with to show all of the fun ideas we'll be doing.

Rainbow Day:

Homemade Play-Doh - http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2013/02/the-best-homemade-play-doh-color-intro/
Rainbow Trees - http://ohboylefler.blogspot.com/2013/03/sidewalk-paint-and-signs-of-spring.html
Cupcakes - http://www.wilton.com/technique/Layering-Cupcake-Colors?cmp=pint2013&icid=0109layeringcupcakecolors


Not only will these ideas help entertain my kids this summer, but it will also give me an excuse to try out some of the fun things I've found on Pinterest.com and check them off my Pinterest Bucket List.   And doing it all with an extremely small budget of under $10 a week (not an easy task for a family of three kids), will be a good test on how creative I can be with using supplies we already have here at home.

So for the first day of Week 1, our total cost came to $2.50 (Cake mix $1 and Frosting $1.50) everything else we already have here at the house.  I also made sure to reserve "The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow" book & DVD earlier this month, online at our library, so that we would have it waiting for us to pick it up.