Five On Friday: Things to Do With the Kids At Home (with recipes!)

My kids are finally done with school! We've got a long list of places we'd like to go over the next ten weeks. Some are free, some are cheap, some are going to need some coupon research. Of course there will be plenty of staying home and letting them be bored time, too. 

But my kids and I really like to make and do things. I know that if we're having an extra boring day sometimes just doing one activity together can inspire them for all sorts of other play. So I've also been making a list of things to do at home, like:

1. Watch the movie "Flubber" (borrowed from library so Mommy can exercise or nap) and then make some flubber to play with. 

2. I make bread almost every week but we haven't ever made butter. I remember my older kids doing it at preschool once with heavy cream and a jar so we're going to try that  one of these summer days.

3.  Sidewalk chalk: still fun for all of my kids. Sometimes they use up our entire driveway and then ask our next door neighbors if they can draw on theirs, too. We create creative hopscotch games or draw curvy lines to follow on  bikes or scooters. 14-year-old G has invented large, elaborate, live-action fantasy-type games with chalk on the driveway. Currently there is a "village" on my driveway which is chalk-drawn businesses and homes connected by two lane roads. (And I can't forget "chalk makeup" which is made by grinding up chalk and adding water.)

4. Speaking of neighbors' driveways . . . it occurred to me that because one of our other neighbors has a driveway that has been deemed "way more fun" to bike on than ours, we can take advantage of their willingness to let us use it and go down there to get some free fun.

5. Oh and one more recipe to try, this is one definitely for the big kids. Last year we were in New York City with some visiting friends and my teens got "Ramen burgers" from a food truck. The burgers were beef but the buns were made from Ramen, which, in spite of all my cooking from scratch, is one of their favorite foods. It didn't look that hard to make so this summer I think we'll try for ourselves with this recipe.