Fun Stuff Friday Category

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Fun Stuff Friday: SwagBucks

After reading about SwagBucks on the Southern Savers blog, I decided to sign up.  Basically, you earn this virtual money (called SwagBucks) via online activity.  And you can redeem this virtual money for various prizes.  My plan is to use it on Amazon.com gift cards so I can get mp3s and video on demand for free.  You only have to earn 45 SwagBucks to get a $5 Amazon card, which will pay for 4-5 songs, a couple of TV episodes (like Glee!), or a movie.  I’ve already earned 3 for signing up, several for searching, and I’m trading in an old cell phone for 50.  You can earn them by shopping online, too.  All kinds of opportunities out there!

If you’re interested, go herSearch & Wine and sign up.  (And just in the interest of full disclosure, I do get SwagBucks for referring people, but I think it’s worth doing or I wouldn’t recommend it!)

And if you’re using SwagBucks, fill me in…how has it worked for you?  How long did it take you to earn 45 and what have you gotten from them?

Posted in Free Stuff, Fun Stuff Friday | 1 Comment »

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — I Like To Move It

My kids LOVE dance parties.  We always start them out with this song from Madagascar.  It’s a great way to get a little exercise in a fun way, especially when the weather is dismal and prevents outside activities like it has been most of this week.  As soon as my oldest gets home from school today I’ll be putting on our dance party mix and we’ll be doing a little move it, move it.

Posted in Fun Stuff Friday, On My iPod, Parenting | 2 Comments »

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

I am obsessed with this song.  I listen to it 40387 times a day.

Posted in Fun Stuff Friday, On My iPod | 1 Comment »

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — Blogs

Funny blogs can sometimes turn my day around.  If you need a pick me up, check out one of these:

What funny blogs do you like?  I can always use a little more humor in my day!

Posted in Fun Stuff Friday, Sites to See | 1 Comment »

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — FREE Bowling

This one’s a little late and won’t last much longer, but you may be able to get a few games in!  Last Friday my oldest son had a day off of school and we intended to take a day trip to the beach.  But then we were concerned about rough water due to Hurricane Bill and scrapped our plans the night before.  My husband had already planned the day off, so he wanted to do something anyway.  I dug through some old emails and found one a friend had sent about free kids bowling for the summer.  My oldest has been invited to a couple of bowling parties recently and really enjoyed them so I thought that sounded like a winning plan.

The website is http://www.kidsbowlfree.com.  The closest free bowling location to Sanford was in Cary, so we printed the coupons, loaded up the van, and headed up Highway 1.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a sign on the door that said the bowling alley was now smoke free, since having 3 kids with asthma makes me more than a little paranoid about them breathing cigarette smoke.  It was clean, the employees were great, and the kids had a lot of fun.

I think this is good through August 31, so if you have a chance to do it in the next few days, it’s worth the trip to Cary!

Posted in Free Stuff, Fun Stuff Friday, Sites to See | No Comments »

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — Marbles Kids Museum

Marbles is located in downtown Raleigh, so it’s a bit of a drive for us Sanford residents.  But it is definitely worth the trip!  We first went a few years ago when we’d first moved here and were wholly unimpressed.  The exhibits weren’t very good for a preschool age child and there just wasn’t much to do.  They remodeled a couple of years ago and that has all changed!  There are plenty of things to do for children of all ages…even the baby had fun playing in the floor of the baby area.  (Well, until a bunch of toddlers came in and walked all over her.  But this was the fault of the rude and tacky parents, not the museum.)  The boys played dress up, pretended to be pirates, doctors, firefighters, animals, and much more.  There was water play, a peas and carrots ball pit, a hockey rink, and a pirate ship to climb on.  Best of all, this was all incorporated into a learning experience!

It will cost you $5 for every person over the age of 1 who wants to go in.  If you have a Food Lion card, you can show it on Wednesdays to get $1 off admission.  It’s definitely worth the drive and the cost of admission.

for more info: http://www.marbleskidsmuseum.org/

Posted in Fun Stuff Friday, Sites to See | No Comments »

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — BCC

You’ve read gushing about my church before.  Starting this Sunday, they’ll be giving away $50 Walmart gift cards to 50 families visiting for the first time.  So if you’re looking for something non-traditional, filled with Christ-followers (don’t call us Christians!), and LOTS of fun, BCC may be just what you want.

The series starting Sunday is going to be a lot of fun…Finding God in your iPod.  I am personally not a contemporary Christian music girl, so hearing Nickelback, Jack’s Mannequin, Kings of Leon and more linked to my faith really appeal to me…it’s a good reminder that God is everywhere, that we don’t need to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world to find Him.

You can find Brickcity Community Church on Burns Drive, near the intersection of Burns and Hawkins, right across from the Coca Cola plant.  Services are at 9:30 and 11:00 Sunday mornings and you can come as you are…jeans and t-shirts are perfectly acceptable!  We have a coffee bar in the lobby where you can order your favorite coffee drink or a yummy smoothie.  The kid’s programs are a ton of fun and even my very attached children go willingly into their rooms each Sunday.  Every time we get on the road that takes us to the church my 3 year old gets all excited and asks if it’s Sunday…I hate having to tell him it’s not because he gets so sad!

And if you think I’m slightly crazy or weird for saying church is fun, trust me…I was there a year ago.  I thought anyone who enjoyed church was slightly strange.  Apparently it’s just a matter of finding the right one.  For us, that was BCC.

Posted in Faith/Religion, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff Friday | No Comments »

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — The Aquarium

So I mentioned the zoo last week for FSF (That’s Fun Stuff Friday!) and today I’m talking about something that you also have access to with the zoo membership…the 3 North Carolina Aquariums.  One of our “Learning Adventure” days this summer was a mini-vacation that included a day at the beach with a friend of mine who goes all the way back to middle school days, then a trip to the aquarium at Fort Fisher and a ferry ride on the way home.  This was a very inexpensive trip for us.  We hung out at her parent’s beach house on the beach day, then drove down to Wilmington where we’d gotten a hotel room for $30 (gotta love priceline.com!), were admitted free to the aquarium with our NC Zoo Society card, and then paid $5 (I think, may be a bit higher or lower) for the ferry.  It was a great trip and cost us very little out of pocket, even once we factored in gas.

The aquarium we went to was great.  We got to see an albino alligator (beautiful animal!), turtles, ducks, fish and much, much more.  It was a lot of fun for the boys, and mom and dad enjoyed it as well!  It is a bit of a drive (the others are even farther away, but we hope to be able to afford some more mini-trips at some point to see them) so if you can turn it into a mini-vacation I highly suggest it.  Nobody likes being stuck in the car with cranky kids for 6+ hours in a day!

Overall, I recommend them, especially if your family can be admitted at no charge!

Posted in Fun Stuff Friday, Parenting, Sites to See, Travel | No Comments »

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Fun Stuff Friday — The NC Zoo

Because I am having a hard time coming up with things to write lately (which is why you’ve been egtting nothing but inane rambling posts, if you get anything at all!) I’m going to start something new.  I’m still working on my system, but this is attempt #1 at a more regular blog post.

As a family, we’re always looking for fun (inexpensive!) stuff to do near Sanford.  Fun Stuff Fridays will be sharing the things we’ve found that we enjoyed.  If you have additional suggestions, please let me know!  I’ll review each one we’re able to try out and let you know how we liked it.  First up: The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro!

The zoo is about an hour away from Sanford.  To get there, we drive up Hwy 42 (aka Wicker St or Carbonton Rd) and follow the signs.  This is the quickest route I’ve found.  It takes a bit longer if you take Hwy 421 to Hwy 64 like they recommend on their website, so if you’re comfortable with old 2 lane highways you can save some time.

We’ve purchased a family membership.  It’s a great deal and we save money if we make just 2 zoo visits during the year.  We love going, so it’s not hard to make that trip 3-4 times a year or more.  The savings really add up!  And the zoo is great…they have all kinds of animals.  Elephants, giraffes, lions, chimpanzees, seals/sea lions, polar bears, and much, much more.  It’s over 5 miles of trails and nice and hilly so you get a good workout in.  (Especially if you challenge your children to race you to the top of every hill like I did last time we were there!)  It’s been the first zoo that each of my children has been to, so it holds a special place in my heart for that reason.  I have a picture of my oldest son on his 1st birthday with an elephant statue, and now we take a picture of all 3 kids with that same statue every time we go.

Take the drive and check it out.  It’s worth the time and money!

Posted in Fun Stuff Friday, Parenting, Reviews, Sanford | No Comments »

  • I am a mom to 3 living in Sanford, NC. I am a wife. I am a student. I am a Christ follower. I am a friend. This is the craziness of my life.
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