Kids Bowl Free {Kids Summer Fun Activity}

Looking for something FUN to do with your kids this Summer? My kids have have been out of school for almost three weeks, and this is one of our most favorite activities to do in the Summer, thus far. It's FREE BOWLING!!

Last week my ten year old beat all of us. We're going again this morning. Talk about a fun, competitive game? Bowling is it!

Free bowling is available is most cities, check this link to find a participating bowling alley near you. Jacksonville friends, we go to the Nassau County, Yulee Bowling Alley. It's not crowded, and it's a clean facility.

See you at the alley!

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Looking for an action-packed weekend of fun for the whole family? Head to your local IMAX® Theater for the premiere of How to Train Your Dragon 2!

My family is a huge fan of the first How to Train Your Dragon. We are so excited to see this sure-to-be-great sequel! {There's a LOT of great new movies this summer!}

Starting this Friday, June 13th, the second chapter of DreamWorks Animation's beloved How to Train Your Dragon franchise is soaring to all IMAX theatres domestically in select engagements. The IMAX 3D release will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience®, creating a unique environment that will make audiences feel as though they are flying alongside heroic Viking Hiccup and his faithful dragon, Toothless.

Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Kristen Wiig reprise their respective voice roles, joined this time by Academy Award® winner Cate Blanchett, Djimon Honsou and Kit Harington.

Will your family be going to see Hiccup, the viking  and Toothless, the dragon again??


**Information above provided by IMAX.

Summer Fun {put together a puzzle}

This Summer I'm starting a series of Summer fun activities that you can do with your kids to keep them busy and prevent you from hearing "I'm bored!" over and over. Do you have any ideas? Let me know in the comments to be featured!

One thing McKinley loves to do is PUZZLES. Every time I'm at the Dollar Tree or at the Target One Spot I check for a new puzzle. For only $1 a piece I buy them often. These puzzles usually have between 24 and 36 pieces and are pretty easy for her.



Many people have suggested I frame her puzzles when she finishes one. Two things that keep me from framing them; I would have more framed puzzles than one person should ever have AND she likes to put her puzzles together over and over again.

Like any other kid though, she gets bored of doing the same puzzles over and over again. I knew I would need to give her a couple of puzzles she had never seen before if I wanted this Summer Fun activity to be, well, FUN.

Have you looked at puzzles at WalMart or Target lately. There's a LOT to choose from. Some of them have 1000 pieces! While I know she's a master of 24-36 piece puzzles, I didn't want to overwhelm her right off the bat. So, I got her a 300 piece Cinderella puzzle from the Thomas Kinkade Disney Collection. 

It'll take us a few days to put it together. After all, she's 5 and her attention span will not keep for hours on one thing. {Unless it's Elsa and Anna PlayDoh videos. Don't ask.} But, that's okay. When she comes to me saying "I'm bored", I can pull the puzzle down and we can work on it some more. {I bought a piece of foam board large enough to hold the puzzle and the extra pieces while we put it together. No, I won't be framing it.}

When we finish with this one, I plan to buy the others in the collection. There's Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Snow White.

What are your favorite puzzles to put together?


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Summer Fun {Build a Fort}

My kids get out of school this coming Friday. Since Summer camps are probably not going to happen this Summer, I need to get creative in keeping 5 kids busy all day for the next two months. If I hear "I'm bored" even one time I'm handing that particular child a bottle of spray cleaner and paper towels and sending them to clean the baseboards! {I've done it before. I do it often. As a result, I just might have the cleanest baseboards on the block!}

I have a few ideas up my sleeve. I plan to start a little Summer Fun series here at jonahbonah to share them with you. My hope is that it'll save you also from hearing "I'm bored."

Idea #1. Build a fort.



When I was a kid I loved building a fort. Either in my bedroom or under the dining room table. There was something about being hidden behind those sheets or blankets with my favorite toys or dolls and playing all by myself. Truth be told, if I could build a fort now and hide in it for even 5 minutes, I would do it. Momma needs a break. :o)

Now, my kids love for me to build them a fort. Sometimes we bring the dining room table chairs into the living room and drape blankets over them to make a huge fort for either playing in or watching a movie.

The other day the boys leaned four landscaping timbers up against a tree in the backyard and left them. I'm not sure what their original intentions were but, when I saw them there the next day I knew they were the perfect "bones" to make a great fort. While McKinley was busy playing with her brothers Lego bricks I snuck outside with a few vintage sheets and tied them to the timbers.

I laid a sheet on the ground and fixed her a portable lunch. We took the toys outside that she was playing with. She was all set to go have an afternoon alone within the walls of those sheets. It came as no surprise that she loved it!



Unfortunately, it rained the next day so the fort had to come down. But, I know now that if I build a fort, they will come. And have fun! We will FOR SURE be making more forts this summer!



Do you have any Summer Fun Ideas? I'd love to hear them! I just might recreate your idea and feature it here on jonahbonah.