Money Saving Fun

Hermann Park downtown has a free waterpark in the playground area. There's some fantastic playground equipment as well.

The Children's museum nearby is only $3 a person.

S., mom to 4 girls

Purchase some inexpensive kites and go to the park and fly them.

Borrow camping equipment and go camping.
Go fishing.
Make paper airplanes. See who can make them fly the farthest, the highest.

Make sheet caves in the living room, crawl through them, take a nap under them, camp at night under them.

Call a local book store to see if they are doing a childrens reading time. They are free and usually also have an art project.

Go to a college campus with the kids trikes, bikes, skates and let them ride all around the sidewalks on the weekends when there are not many people there.

Purchase sidewalk chalk and make a "street" with stripes, stop signs, parking spaces on your drive way. Play traffic.

Play Simon says. Hop, skip, walk backwards. Let the 3 year old be Simon.

Go to a park or lake and feed the ducks.

Make homemade bubbles. Blow lots and lots of bubbles.

Go for a hike and teach the boys the rules of hiking. Teach them what to do if they get lost. Teach them how to mark the trail.

Get flashlights and turn off all of the lights at night and play hide and seek in the dark.

Get big pieces of card board (flatten boxes). Have the boys lie on them and draw their outline. Have them color themselves. Let them do the same to you.

Collect empty boxes. Tape them up and use them as giant "blocks". Build really huge buildings or whatever.

Play "Store" with all of their toys. Have them pretend to be the shop keeper and you "buy" the toys. Make your own money on the computer and let the boys color the money. Your 7 year old could probably design it himself on the computer.

Play grocery store with all of the canned goods in the kitchen. When your cereal boxes, cracker boxes etc. are empty. Tape them up for future "store" play time.

Play restaurant. Let the boys be the waiters, cook and let them serve you the meal. Pay them and tip them with your "money".

Go to jacobsguide.com. Tons of things to do.

I haven't tried this yet, but a friend just told me about it. GEOCACHING. Its a world wide scavenger hunt, where you use a GPS device to locate hidden caches. Some of the caches are just containers where you write your name to say you've been there, and some are buckets of little toys, surprises etc, where you take something and leave something for the next "hunter". The upfront expense is the GPS device, but he suggested buying a relatively cheap one... The friend that told me about it said that his boys were 4 and 7 when he started and now they are 11 and 14 and they still all do it as a family. go to www.geocaching.com, get yourself a free user name and then run your zip code... I ran mine and found at least 6 within a mile of my home... it makes me want to go driving around with the kids in tow!! :) have fun if you try it!

If you enjoy the outdoors, I agree with the post below that you (and the boys) would like geocaching. My husband and our two kids are addicted to it.

My parents would pick up a card board refridgerator box from a local appliance store. We would have fun with that for hours. There is always the sprinkler...watering grass and wearing the kids out. Two birds. Try making a town on a piece of cardboard to drive match box cars on. Make parking spaces in the grage ( masking tape) for the kids bikes. Side walk chalk. Lots of crafts. think school festival days, you can make your own ring toss, hot potatoe, and other activities like that. There is always the park. Good luck, let us know what you do.

My kids are now 8,6,3.
My husband offers free drum circles for all ages. It's a good time for the whole family. tamborythms.com
Have you been to the San Antonio Zoo lately? They've really made it nice. There is a train to ride. You can also buy a membership reasonably and can go anytime and don't have to see everything at once. You can take in your own food too.
So are the Japonese Tea Gardens right next door (free).
Brackenridge park is great for picnics or bike rides or just to walk the trails or throw rocks in the river. Next to the zoo too.
The Witte museum is free on Tuesday afternoons.
Guadalupe State Park off of Hwy 46 outside of Boerne is a nice day activity at the river.
If you can afford Sea World - my kids loooved it. It's perfect for both ages. Right now the cost of one day gives you a season's pass. The pass is the way to go as your 3 year old will get very tired. You can divide it up. It can keep you busy all summer with something new each time. No outside food though.
The other day I took my kids to walk the trails in a wilderness park off of I10 outside of 1604 opposite side of Camp Bullis. I think it was Friedrich Wilderness park. They keep begging me to take them back. (free)
I take them camping every summer. It's a great time.
Pump It Up is great on bad weather days. They get 2 hours of bouncy fun for under $10.
There's a children's museum downtown. I haven't been, but my kids have.
There's an iceskating place on the far northside of town by 281.
Bowling.
A day at the beach. I'll drive down in the morning - breakfast in the car. We'll stop about 30 minutes outside of Corpus at a rest stop and eat a picnic lunch (that way they're not eating sand too). Then, go to the beach and have a blast. Stay til dark if wanting to, but 4 hours is good. Stop and eat something on our way out of town. Head home. $= gas and eating out once. They'll sleep the whole way home. If you take a kite - buy a good quality one.
Canyon Lake.
I have a friend whose boys love paint ball.
Make some mud in the back yard and give them sand shovels and buckets. Let them have a blast. Get in there with them. They will love it.

Raymand- I too have a houseful of boys! I go to the Dollar Tree and buy the little dollar kites or the dollar toys and they have a blast. And its only a dollar! my boys love to fish as well. Hope you get some awesome ideas!

waterballons are always fun for boys.Take the time to fill up alot and let them go at it.Canoeing at Zilker is fun too for boys $10 for an hour.Checkers and marbles are a fun game that my 8 yr.old enjoys.Or you can invest in a trampoline w/a net of course, like i did and thats hours of fun.

Have you tried the zoo in brownsville? It is a great way to pass the afternoon.

Your local library probably has a storytime hour. They sing, dance, read books and do a craft.