The crew has been on Spring Break lately, so I’ve been hashing together a schedule between work and home to spend time with them–even if it occasionally means I’m working while they’re playing. It’s a joy to be able to hear them laughing (and squealing!) in the background! What are some of the simple and frugal (actually, mostly FREE) family fun we’ve been enjoying this week?

Well, scrubbing water troughs for one!

The kiddos had to empty, scrub and refill all the water troughs. Since we just recently rotated the animals around, there’s a free trough sitting in the back field. The crew asked if they could scrub it and play in it–since it was 80 degrees outside!

Yep, no problem! {smile}

Even at 80 degrees outside, our well water is COLD!

This “game” was more about who could stay in the longest. The Ladybug didn’t even try–she was hose commander for the day!

Some other activities we’ve enjoyed?

Riding Bikes — both here at home and a couple times we’ve loaded up in the truck and hauled their bikes to the local school parking lots for them to enjoy some pavement time.

Cooking and Baking–we’ve done some more freezer cooking, and the Ladybug has been making desserts all by herself lately. She has fun decorating her creations with leftover birthday frosting and sprinkles.

Coloring and Drawing–the kiddos have used their “quiet, book time” as a chance to get into their new coloring books from Christmas. This year the Ladybug has Birdwatching, the Cowboy has Airplanes of WWII, and Speedracer has Space Exploration.

Read Alouds–I’ve been reading to them while they play Legos, color, or do clay work. At the moment, we’ve started a family unit study on Pirates (inspired by our recent visit to the Mariners Museum!), so we’re reading The Barbary Pirates.

Video Games–yep, I’ve been letting them play XBox while they’re home. It’s not something we do a lot of, so it’s a high-value activity around here. They’re very good about playing nicely together and taking turns since we don’t get to use it very often.

Hiking–We’ve hiked around our woods looking for turkey tracks and signs. We’ve also hiked over to the beaver pond at the tree farm and had a picnic lunch.

Painting and Redecorating–we’re in the middle of repainting and redecorating the Ladybug’s room from the bright yellow and pink birdie nursery/elementary decor to a new bright and boho tween/teen decor. Pray for me! Her taste is not our normal taste, but we are trying hard to give her control!

Flying Kites–we got new kites in our Easter Box from Mimi and we’ve been out once or twice with them. Our fields have long been the perfect place for flying kites and this year we invited some friends over to join us.

Gardening–Mr. Fix-It got our garden turned over last weekend, so we got our planting started. Yes, we’re always behind avid, expert gardeners. No, we don’t mind. To enjoy gardening, I’ve learned that we work best at our own pace.

Swimming–we have a membership to the local Y, so we took advantage of the chance to go swimming in their indoor pool. The summer camp discount for members (times 3, of course) covers more than 80% of the costs for the rest of the year’s membership. Just FYI, they also usually run a Father’s Day special here where the joining fee is $0.

This is a tough time of year for us to leave the farm. Actually, it’s always a tough time to leave the farm when you have livestock, but more so when you have babies on the ground! So we’ve stuck close to home but still managed to fit in a lot of fun. Farm kids can be amused by simple things!

How’s your Spring going so far? We’re definitely into warm weather again here, and it’s been dry. That’s great news for the kiddos enjoying their break, but we could use some rain to help the grass grow.