It’s not that easy to pick out a good kid’s wading pool. They are definitely NOT all created equal. Up until last year I would use a hard-sided toddler wading pool for my grandkids’ visits. It was easy to fill, easy to empty and didn’t get holes easily compared to a small, inexpensive toddler inflatable pool. For that matter, it also didn’t require an energetic but not necessarily strong-winded grandma to blow it up.

One of my grandkids has a special needs’ condition that led to him spending four years having a difficult time dealing with water of any kind, including in a swimming pool. Once we understood that, I started using a separate smaller wading pool for him.

The rest of the grandkids could cavort happily all summer in the bigger wading pool, splashing to their hearts’ content. My youngest grandson could take his time with the smaller pool, one toe at a time if necessary. It was always the highlight of my summer when, after weeks of summer play, he was finally able to jump in the pool as quickly as the others! After that, it was always a free-for-all as they all enjoyed running back and forth between the two pools

This year the tiny wading pools have been passed on to the Salvation Army and all the kids, youngest included (YAY!), have graduated to their very cool new inflatable pool at their house. Their mom sets it up using an electric air pump (Yay! Grandma still doesn’t have to blow it up!) It’s actually big enough for four kids (6,6,7,12) and they can even bring some toys in the pool. I’ve also been pleased to notice that it has proven to be very sturdy. Even with four very active children playing in, and sometimes ON the pool and its sides, no hole in the vinyl and the summer is almost over!

Before settling on this simple, yet fun, inflatable pool, we each tried a couple of “cool” inflatable “swimming” pools with lots of bells and whistles. Unfortunately they looked great but weren’t much bigger than our original waders. We didn’t want to spend over $50 so that definitely limited our choices. My grandkids’ big inflatable swimming pool is about 6 feet by10 feet and was under $50!. It  is much more fun because there is plenty of room to play, have toys, and even float with a couple of smaller pool toys.

This is not to say that having a pool guarantees a problem-free summer. Grandkids being grandkids, there will be fusses, feuds, and finagling. I’ve been royally splashed when it felt good and royally soaked when I didn’t want to get wet. There have been fun times and there have been time outs for misbehaving. Overall though , these pools are a great boon to Sandwich Generation grandparents everywhere.

In fact, even our aging parents can enjoy them. I have such great memories of my dad sitting – at a safe, non-splashing distance – and laughing and smiling as he watched his happy great-grand-tots playing happily. My senior mom loved turning on the sprinkler over our little wading pool and helping them play in water coming from the top and the bottom. It was our own mini water park.

Yup, fun times in the summer time for this Sandwich Generation family always include some kind of portable wading pool or inflatable pool in our back yard! How about you?

For more Family Friday fun ideas, be sure to pop over to Homemaker Barbi. This week is part 2 of a two-part series on helping train a grand-toddler to help around the house.

Summer vacation and grandkids just seem to go together like a horse and carriage, not to mention love and marriage. I’m looking forward to seeing my long distance grandkids later this summer, and my close up grandkids just got to visit with their long distance grandma. When I see my little cutie pies, we will eat a lot of meals at their house, but I’m also planning on treating them out a couple of times. It’s my way of saying thank you for their sweet hospitality, give my daughter and son a treat, and enjoy the Mongolian BBQ we don’t have locally. Fortunately, they love it too. It’s not a super cheap money saver, but sooooo worth it.

They live in a small town, so there’s not a huge amount of choices. However, thanks to a great article at MSN’s Delish page, I’m going to get to save money on another night. That’s because I discovered that Applebee’s has Monday Night Family Nights where kids eat free, 1 kid per adult. And if you have more than the three adults that will be going in my group (and we do ), extra kids are only a buck apiece. SWEET! Of course, I also made sure I read the small print that warns this money saver deal is good only at participating locations. I’m just hoping that will include my future location! I know the grandkids will be thrilled. They already love Applebee’s for their balloons. This grandma loves Applebee’s because of their delicious brownie desserts. Throw in  the free kids’ meals and I’m going to be an extra happy camper!

Whether the grandkids come to visit you, you go to visit the grandkids, or y’all decide to take a multi-generational family vacation, the odds are good you will all be eating out together at least once or twice this summer. So head on over to MSN’s Delish site to read Where Kids Eat Free from A-Z.     You’ll find 25 money saver restaurants, along with links to directions, reviews, and even some great recipes to cook at home! And Happy Eatin’ to you as well.

For more great Family Friday ideas, be sure to pop over to HomemakerBarbi’s!

Do you love Davy Jones of the Monkees, Steve Lawrence, Neil Sedaka, Sha Na Na, BB King, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys? Do you enjoy the music of the 50’s?  Do you have fun reading to your grandkids? Would your aging parents say yes to any or all of these? Then I have a wonderful book and cd set to share with you. I can’t believe I just discovered it as it is by one of my absolute, all-time favorite children’s book authors, Sandra Boynton. My only excuse is that I normally focus on her books, but still…

One of my daughters called and told me I should listen to the Penguin Song by Sandra Boynton. I was a bit surprised by that, but I checked it out on YouTube and LOVED IT. I called her back to ask if she was talking about the Personal Penguin song sung by Davy Jones. “Yes, I think so,” she replied. “That’s Davy Jones of the Monkees – one of my all time favorite groups AND singers!” I excitedly reported.

As I watched this adorable song with the cute illustrations from the book, the verse, “A friend loves at all times,” came to my mind. The story makes a great illustration for that verse!

Looking further at the YouTube directory, I discovered another video by Sandra Boynton, herself, explaining how they created one of her recent projects, “The Blue Moo.” It turns out that The Penguin Song is part of that project. It was fascinating – both to hear the story of the book, and to watch the clips of many of my favorite singers in the recording studio.

I have to tell you, The Blue Moo is absolutely adorable! My senior mom is going to love it because of the 50’s flavor. My grandkids are going to love it because of the cute songs. And I’M GOING TO LOVE IT because of so many of my favorite singers AND the cute songs AND the special Sandra Boynton touch! As a matter of fact, I’m getting it today! And can’t wait! How about you? 

As a matter of fact, thanks to Workman Publishing, you can have the Personal Penguin song “to have for ever and ever” (or at least until your computer crashes – so don’t forget to back up often ). This is the same song as above, but at the Workman site, with a link to an mp3 download for Personal Penguin. Scroll down to just below the words DAVY JONES to the words “Right-click here and select “save link as…”" Your grandkids are going to love it and your elderly parents might even like it as well. Enjoy!

WOO HOO. The 4th of July is coming up and that can mean fun times for grandparents and grandkids at family get-togethers. For that matter, it can mean fun times for the days preceding the 4th, whether you will get together on the 4th or not.

For instance:

• DLTK has fun posters, games and yummy recipes that you and your grandkids will enjoy
• Activity Village has fun mazes, word searches, kids coloring pages, printables, cards, crafts, and more recipes
  
• Kaboose has some cute treat holders for licorice and popcorn (a tasty patriotic decoration, no less)
• Enchanted Learning has great projects, activities, coloring pages to print, and educational info which is great for your grandkids’ summer homeschooling programs.
  

With all these fun ideas, you could spend the whole week making tons of goodies, such as patriotic pinwheels, star wreaths, and colorful planter pots. What do you do with them, though? Decorate your house and their house, of course.

Then, how about looking around for any elderly neighbors who don’t have family living nearby. What a great encouragement it would be to them, and what a great character building exercise for your grandkids, to take some of those goodies over to the neighbor on or around the 4th. In fact, Grandma Gifts of Love has a great article about that.

If you start today, you could even make some cute goodies and patriotic decorations to send to cousins or aging parents who don’t live close by. How fun to open up a package the day or so before the 4th and find all sorts of colorful, patriotic decor and know that your family has similar sets. It can make the distance seem not so far away.

I hope this gives you plenty of fun ideas. And I hope and pray you and your family all have a peaceful, blessed 4th of July!

Don’t forget to check HomemakerBarbi for more Family Friday Fun Ideas to share with your grandkids!

It’s HOT! At least where I’m at. And if it’s not hot where you’re at, just wait – SUMMER STARTS NEXT WEEK!  In the season of life I am currently enjoying, I prefer a tad bit cooler, however my grandkids are all THRILLED that summer is almost here. It’s been so warm, their mom has already pulled out the plastic swimming pool. They’ve been having a blast with it.

When I was babysitting last week, my grandkids decided they didn’t want any more paper airplanes. They wanted swimming pool toys instead! That was fine with me as my budget said, “Cheap Toys!” So back to the drawing board, errr computer, we went.

We decided to give paper boats a try. What would make better pool toys than paper boats! I was a bit leery, I have to admit. After the struggles I had with the paper airplanes, was I up to the challenges of the paper boats? Guess what? I was! I found a great site to share with you (see below), in case you’d like to make some of these fun pool toys!

The first site I went to had a great pattern. As I was folding it, Grand-Twin one commented it looked just like his paper hat we had made over the winter. Two folds later, he made the same comment. Four folds later, he repeated it. By this time, I was a bit panicked, but IT WORKED. I sent him out to the pool and started churning out the next hat.

By the time I finished the third hat, the first grandkid was back in saying his was “all shwedded up in the pool” (his first missing tooth ). Following him outside, we discovered he had been splashing it on top, underneath, and everywhere else he could get water. That led to a very entertaining and educational discussion about how to put a paper airplane in the water and make wind to blow it without splashing it too much. We even had a great mini-theological discussion about how we can’t see the wind, but we can see what it does. In the same way, we can’t see God, but we can see what He does – His Fruit. Which, of course, led us right back to our Fruit of the Spirit memory verses.

Eight boats, two discussions, and three memory verses later, we were ready to head in for nap. Well, I was ready. They weren’t ready, but cheerfully went in anyway. All in all, a hearty time was had by all, maties.

If you give these fun swimming pool toys a try, let us know what you think about them. And if you have any great sites with more ideas for cheap toys, we’d love to hear about those as well!

Directions for Fun Swimming Pool Toys – Paper Boats

For more fun summer ideas and tips, check out HomemakerBarbi’s Family Friday. 

What do you do when all the grandkids come to visit you at your small apartment for a couple of days, the rain is pouring, and the “natives are getting restless?” We love to head for Chuck E. Cheese.

I’m not going to tell you it’s the cheapest grandkid date in town. McDonald’s and Chick-Fil-A are cheaper, and they are high on my list as well!

Chuck E. Cheese, however, combines the climbing fun of a McDonald’s playland and the game-playing fun of an arcade. It even has a hint of the ride fun of Disneyland, all wrapped up into one great mouse-hugging time for grandma and grandkids. And if you compare the cost of a date there to one to the big D (Disneyland), it is quite cheap!

One of the best things about them is their focus on safety. Each person gets their hand stamped with a special matching stamp for their whole group. Now mind you, I still do count heads constantly. That’s just who I am. But I also can sit and nibble carrots from the fresh salad bar, while they have fun playing games and accumulating tickets to buy the extremely cheap, yet immensely satisfying little toys. Not only that, when they run out of tokens, they’ve got an awesome playland-style climbing gym that’s wonderfully free.

Some of my best tips for a fun time there:

• Go Monday – Friday between 10-12 in the morning. It’s usually fairly empty. Even if a day care group or a mom’s group comes, it’s still not that crowded. (When schools are out, that may change a bit. You could call in advance to see if there are a lot of events scheduled.)
  
• If you help with your grandkids’ home schooling program, it’s a great place to go to as a reward for a month of hard work and good behavior; learning something extra-difficult like all their times tables, or maybe even a get-together for the whole home school group to compare notes, plan for the year, and socialize while the kids play.
• Pick a table on the end in the center (I try to get the same one each time) and put something they will easily recognize as yours on it . I always tell them if they can’t find me and need me, go find our table and stand on the seat and wave til I spot them. We’ve only needed that twice but it worked great both times.
• Air Hockey is wonderful for almost all ages . And it really makes the 25 cent tokens last a long time. On the other hand, the games where they just put in a quarter to see if it lands somewhere they want EAT those quarters faster than you can say “Grandma, can I have more tokens!” I’ve started limiting those to just a couple, even if they do pay out in lots of tickets!
• Our Chuck E. Cheese has a fun car ride that takes a picture of them while they ride . Sometimes I stand behind them to get my pix with each of them. It makes a fun addition to the photo album.
• If all your little ones are younger, you’ll be happy to know that they have a semi-enclosed tot’s section as well. Mine includes tables so we can eat right there and keep a closer eye on them.
• One caveat – it is rarely quiet . If noise bothers you, go as close to opening as you can, when it will be about the quietest.
• If you have a grandkid who is scared of larger-than-life dressed up characters, like you often see at Disneyland, be forewarned. A giant mouse by the name of Chuck E. Cheese does wander around. While most of our grandkids will absolutely love him, it’s good to know in advance if you have a shy one.
• If you go to the Chuck E Cheese website , you can sign up to get free email with lots of great token and pizza deals. They also have a variety of token and pizza deals when you get there.

Whatever the age, Chuck E. Cheese is a fun place for the grandkids AND the grandparents . We always have a blast inside, even if it’s raining outside! And the pizza is yummy too!

For more articles about family fun, from more tips for traveling with grandkids to frugal shopping tips for grandkids , visit FamilyFriday at HomemakerBarbi .