Written by Josh and Jenny Solar of The Happy Family Movement

First off, what exactly is a Fun Fest you ask? Here’s the thing…it’s SO simple. You pick a day (we usually declare a fun fest the night before), and you do nothing but have fun! That’s it! We’ve done a few Fun Fests now, and I want to tell you, they are the best days ever! We don’t leave the house, we stay in our jammies, the kids are involved in every aspect of it, so it’s a true family affair. The other cool thing about a fun fest is that it costs nothing. It’s simple, it’s free, and everyone has a blast. What more could you ask for?

We came up with the idea of Fun Fest in December of 2010 when we were snowed in. The kids were getting stir crazy, and we were too. We had to do something, so we decided to have a day where we did nothing but have fun, with each other. And, so, Fun Fest was born.

5 tips to making an incredible Fun Fest for you and your family:

• Make a list. The first and one of the most important steps to a good Fun Fest is to make a great list. We choose to let our kids make the list by themselves. It’s amazing to watch their little minds come up with the games we’ll play. For our Fun Fests, anything goes. As long as we’re not physically harming each other, it makes the list. Another reason this is fun is because we then get to check everything off the list. Kids LOVE to check stuff off of lists! And, at the end of the day, you get to step back and see all the fun you had, in one place, all checked off.
• Eliminate no and can’t from your vocabulary. This is key. As parents, we get into these habits of saying “no” and “we can’t” without thinking. It’s a mindless reaction. The point of Fun Fest is to let your imagination wander, and have an absolute blast with your kiddos. Anything goes! By intentionally eliminating the words “no” and “can’t” from your vocabulary you’ll open up a space where everyone’s creativity will run wild. And that’s an awesome space to be in!
• Do everything on the list. This one is pretty obvious, right? If it’s on the list it has to be checked off by the end of the day. I’ll be honest, some of the activities we’ve done in the past have lasted 5-10 minutes. That’s ok. The activity still got checked off, and we still laughed.
• Document the day. What’s the point of having a really awesome day if you have nothing to remember it by? At least, that’s my view. As a photographer, I document as much as possible. Having pictures can take you right back to how you FELT on any particular day/moment. We used our big, legit cameras the first few Fun Fests we did, and for this last one, we decided to just use our phones here and there and share via Instagram (plug: you can find the Happy Family Movement on Instagram @happyfammvmt). If you decide to share on Instagram, use the hastag #funfest so we can see all the craziness.
• Have fun! This is above everything else, the key to an amazing Fun Fest. Have fun! Fun Fests are stress free ways to just be together with your family. They give us all an opportunity to act on the wild and crazy things we want to do every day but never actually do. There’s nothing more fun than spending a day with your kids doing whatever your heart desires.

Looking for some Fun Fest inspiration? You can watch a slideshow we put together from our first Fun Fest, and here’s a link to another Fun Fest we had last year.

Written by contributor Josh Solar of The Happy Family Movement

We talk a lot about adventurin’ in our house. Big, grand adventures— like our 5-month trek to Europe happening in late 2014/early 2015. But, sometimes, we get so caught up in trying to adventure HUGE that we miss out on the tiny adventures found wherever/whenever we choose to create one. It’s no secret raising a happy, loving family takes a lot of work.

One of the keys we’ve found is to make sure we’re happy, as a couple. If we’re not happy, we can’t possibly put in the intentional effort it takes to keep the kids happy. So we make it a point to adventure together, without the kids every now and then.

A story. Last September, Jenny + I found ourselves in Southern California without the kids for a few days. I was in town for a conference, and was in charge of picking up some of the equipment. 3 stops, all over from Anaheim, to downtown LA, to Santa Monica, meetups spread out over a whole day. Jenny was a bit bummed at first, it was the only free day we had to spend together, the last thing she wanted to do was spend it running all over town. So, we decided to make it an adventure. In one day we…

• Ran through the J. Paul Getty Museum in under an hour (it costs $15 to park (!) but the first hour is free…and we’re super cheap!). I should also mention the building I really wanted to see was the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but alas, I got the 2 mixed up. We had a blast anyway…it’s a beautiful building!
• We parked on the PCH in Santa Monica and raced through the warm sand to splash each other in the waves (it’s no secret the ocean is one of my happy places)…
• I’d always wanted to carve our name in a tree, so I found one right by the true start (or end, depending on your perspective) of Route 66 and crossed that item off the bucket list. The Route 66 connection was key for this, because a few years ago, we drove the entire Route 66 with our kiddos…
• We laid in the grass for a bit, staring up into the blue sky, dreaming of what life holds for us…
• We ate at the best pizza joint ever. I had the BBQ chicken with pineapple

Here’s where the lesson comes in. We could’ve chosen to be grumpy about the circumstances. Running all over LA, fighting traffic for a day, or we could choose to make the most of it. We were intentionally looking for adventure.

When you make your decisions intentional, magic happens. We shifted our perspective and had one of the best days in recent memory. It’s important to have days like we shared in California, days to refresh, relax, recharge a bit, so you can give your kids the love/attention they deserve.

Check out our Intentional Parenting course if you’re interested in learning more about being intentional about raising a happy, loving family.

I always get a thrill out of Trash to Treasure projects— and this one is definitely one of my all-time favorites. Kaley from Dualey flipped an old particle board desk into an adorable play kitchen for her son. The details that they included in it are incredible— a nightlight in the oven, a pullout cutting board and the Pyrex dish as the sink. I can’t decide who has more fun with this— her son playing in it, or Kaley and her husband building it together. — Jen

Have a DIY project that you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here. (Low res, under 600k per image, please.)

Kaley used her mom’s Pyrex dish for the sink. The faucet it from Home Depot and makes it look totally legit.

Use old CD’s as stove burners— genius!  I also love how they have an actual coffee pot on the stove.

Turn a shelf into a cookbook nook. I love her choices for books: Eating the Alphabet, You are my Cupcake, I like Fruit, I like Vegetables and We Belong Together.

A few Ikea utensils mixed in with second hand ones. All I can say is I would have LOVED this kitchen when I was a little girl.

Kaley’s son can prep his meals on his very own pull out prep area— I love this. Kaley used velcro on the IKEA food to keep it secure. Why didn’t I think of that?!

For a step-by-step tutorial on how they made this play kitchen, visit Dualey.

Kaley gave old food containers a second life in the play kitchen by painting them and gluing adorable custom  labels on them. You can see more of her trash-to-play food project here.

Growing up, I never lived close enough to school to walk or even ride our bikes. I feel like I missed out on a part of childhood because of that. Maybe Hollywood has glamorized bike riding childhoods (Sandlot and Now and Then) but I have fallen for it and want my kids to experience the adventure too. So this last week, our 4-year old started preschool and we rode the 1.1 miles there on our bikes. It was everything I had hoped it would be— family bonding, adventure (we saw a snake!), saved some gas, and got some exercise.

If you live within a few miles of your school, why not try leaving your car at home and jumping on your bikes. If you don’t have bikes, check Craigslist or the Salvation Army for some (we just got both kids practically new bikes for $4.99 each!).

5 Reasons you should be biking to school

1. It’s fun! Riding bikes is an instant endorphin booster. It’s freeing to feel the wind on your face and smell the fresh-cut grass as you pedal past homes. It makes you thankful that your legs are strong enough to ride a bike — because some days we forget that others can’t. Yesterday, our 3-year old (who rides in the bike trailer) yelled at me to stop because she could see a deer.  So we stopped for a few minutes as a deer drank from the pond and cars blazed past us. Time stopped for us and it was awesome.

2. It’s good for the environment. Trading your gas-guzzling vehicle for your own little legs is a simple way to help the environment. Start with once a week. Pick a day and make it bike riding day and explain to your kids why you are choosing to do this. If we want our kids to change the world one day, we have to plant the seeds.

3. It’s exercise. 1 in 3 American children are overweight.  Screen-time has replaced playing outdoors and we need to get these kids moving! By bike riding to school, the whole family gets exercise (except the little ones who can’t ride that far yet).

 4. It helps the community. The less cars that are on the road and backing up the drop off/pick up line at school helps everyone. Not to mention the inspiration that it brings to other families— we have 2 other families in our community who ride their bikes now because they saw us doing it. Not to mention how we have gotten to know so many neighbors and parents at Jackson’s preschool all based on the conversation of us being the “bike riding family.”

5. It saves money. Every time you opt out of driving your car, you save money. It’s estimated that is costs between 20-30 cents per mile to operate a car, so for us we save $3 a week biking just to preschool (which is almost equivalent to a coffee date at Starbucks). If we rode bikes to school for an entire year, we would save $160, just to get you thinking. I know it’s not a ton of money, but it is something!

The photos placed throughout this article were from Jackson’s first day of preschool. I wanted you to see how it can be done and how much fun it was (seriously!). This was Jackson’s first time being in any sort of preschool, so it was a pretty big day for our family. Yet it was a great day— and a big part of it had to do with the ride there and back.

Did you bike to school?

How did you get to school when you were kid? Did you walk, bike or drive? Comment below.

Unplugging the family is always high on my list. We got rid of our TV 8 years ago, but over the years our home has become filled with different kinds of screens. Say hello to the iPad, the iPhone and my 27-inch iMac. We are a tv-free family who is completely plugged in.

So when I stumbled across Books and Cookies while driving to Santa Monica Beach, I had to stop and check it out. Not knowing what to expect inside, I was blown away by the creativity and energetic vibe that this children’s bookstore emitted.  It’s like a haven for parents who want to get out of the house, yet also want their kids to have an enriching experience. Books take the main stage here, and the fun/cozy furniture invite exploration.

If only every town had a store like this— where reading was cool and the coffee was fresh.

During my 30 minute visit I met the owner, Chudney Ross and we talked briefly about Books and Cookies. I picked her brain about children’s books and she spent some time making up a list of her favorite children’s books for Family Sponge. Check it out here!

Have a favorite children’s bookstore? Share it with us!

When you live three hours from the nation’s oldest city, you kinda have to check it out. So last minute, we packed the truck, loaded the kids and spent the weekend in St. Augustine, Fl. Aside from the horrific heat and humidity, we had a great time exploring the historic fort and the quaint oceanside town chock full of restaurants and beaches galore. We booked our hotel through Priceline Negotiator (my BFF), packed some semi-healthy snacks and had an awesome mini vacation. I think a last minute trip should be on everyone’s summer bucket list! 

St. Augustine trip highlights: 

• Experiencing a canon being fired at Castillo de San Marcos
• Enjoying breakfast at The Bunnery in Old St. Augustine Village (the coffee was incredible)
• Building a “shell castle” on Vilano Beach (the sand at the beach had a higer ratio of shells to sand than I’ve ever seen!)
• Staring out into the Atlantic Ocean at sunset (we grew up on the West coast, so this was a whole new experience)

Breaking routines and heading out on the road is such a freeing thing for me. A year ago I would have cringed at that statment— I was a routine-driven mama. Now that the kids are almost 3 and 5 we really can stretch a day out with lots of activites and skip a nap here and there. Has your experience been the same?

We had plans to take the kids to St. Augustine Beach the first evening we arrived. We got on swimsuits and brought the sand toys, yet when we got to the beach it had dissapeared thanks to high tide. I felt like I was in a Dali painting when we went to walk down the stairs to the beach to only see waves and water at the bottom of the stairs. After a near meltdown, we manage to successful change course and head to the playground, which also had a splash park. Plan B saved the night!

During our Family Sponge cardboard treehouse giveaway, we asked our readers to fill in the blank:

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is _____________________________.”

I loved the responses from our readers. No one recommended their kids’ cool eco-friendly toy. Which makes me think that The Story of Stuff is on to something. Do we really need to buy all of these “eco-friendly” toys when our kids would much rather climb a tree, play in the sand, or build a fort with a cardboard box?

Don’t get me wrong– cool wooden and sustainable toys are fun and inspire play at home (these are some splurges I’ve made on Amazon– Green Toys Tea Set, Plan Toys Fruits and Veggie Set, Melissa & Doug Building Blocks Set). But nothing beats the great outdoors. Nothing.

My daughter Zoe has so much fun with just a rope swing hanging from a tree or using sidewalk chalk to decorate the box her store-bought toy came in. I think we can eliminate a lot more “stuff” in our lives and just play with the never ending possibility that is all around us– and it’s free. Hanging out with Mother Nature not only sparks imagination play, but when you get down and dirty with simple objects outside, it triggers some of our happiest childhood memories. So here’s a list that our readers shared:

6 awesome toys that are sitting in your recycling bin or just right outside your door

1. Beach Sand (Here’s a great way to bring the sand indoors)

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is beach sand. There’s nothing better” ~ Ash & Matt 

“My favorite eco friendly toy is sand also!” ~ Wendie

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is sand. I am constantly amazed at the way my girls can entertain themselves for HOURS with nothing but a shovel, a bucket and a stretch of sandy beach. The best!” ~ Christy

2. Tire Swing

“Our favorite (as in both myself and the kids) eco friendly toy, our tire swing!” ~ Leslie

3. Trees, Twigs, Dirt

“I grew up on ten acres and playing outside was a must. And my toys were the dirt, trees, and mountains! I want the same for my kids. My imagination was endless!” ~ Corrin

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is a twig or small branch. My eight year old son, finds endless entertainment from them. And they are also great for toasting marshmallows over a bonfire too.” ~ Popo Joy

“Dirt and water! They can go a long way with children.” ~ Melissa

4. Cardboard Boxes

“Our favorite eco-friendly toys are cardboard packaging…we paint, build, and create with them.” ~ Corrin P.

“Our favorite eco-friendly toy is cardboard boxes. We save them all and Madison draws, colors, paints, cuts them.” ~ Catty Young

“The long cardboard box we made into a ship today!” ~ Jackie

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is anything we can make with what we have. She is enjoying the cardboard car we built for her out of a box.” ~ Sarah

5. Toilet Paper Rolls

“We make a lot of things out of cardboard toilet paper rolls–pirate spyglasses and binoculars, mostly. But also caterpillars and phones and people with whacky “hair”. Paper towel rolls become swords. It’s actually all about swords-for-super-heroes lately.” ~ Pamela S.

6. Milk jugs

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is using milk jugs to make lanterns or bird feeders” – Amy Linderman

Yup, this list is pretty simple. Now go play!

What’s gives your child endless play time that doesn’t involve a store-bought toy?

Jadah shared her summer bucket list last week and it really inspired me. I have been “thinking about” a bucket list since I fell in love with The Happy Family Movement. ”Making” one has been a whole different story.

This week, I finally sat down with my family and brainstormed what we would love to do this summer. I wrote the ideas on giant popsicle sticks and threw them in a mason jar. It sits on our kitchen counter and is a constant reminder of the adventures awaiting us this summer.

Here are my summer bucket list ideas

1. Make paper mache hot air balloons
2. Stay in our pajamas all day
3. Look for alligators (at a state park)
4. Organize a softball game with friends
5. Launch a baking soda rocket
6. Play dress up with the kids (and go somewhere in the outfits)
7. Bake pretty cupcakes (mine are normally pretty ugly)
8. Have a lemonade stand and donate proceeds to a charity
9. Geocache bananza
10. Have a tie dye party
11. Make homemade ice cream and have a toppings party
12. Ride a rollercoaster
13. Go to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game
14. Build an awesome sandcastle
15. Cook a hotdog with a magnifying glass
16. Slip n Slide
17. Camp in our living room (tent, sleeping bags and the works)
18. See a movie at a drive-in
19. Pick blackberries
20. Go bowling
21. Make a movie starring our family
22. Build a massive fort
23. Play in the rain
24. Go down a water slide
25. Decorate our street with sidewalk chalk

You can join The Happy Family Movement’s Summer Bucket List Challenge here.

Have any Summer Bucket List ideas? Share them below!

Summer is here! I am inspired by The Happy Family Movement to create and display our summer bucket list in our home. This way our summer fun ideas are staring us right in the face all summer long. My list was a lot longer, but I decided to trim it down to make sure we have to time to slow down, be still and just unplug from being busy.

I used a dry erase marker and wrote on our stand alone repurposed mirror in our living room. My daughter loves looking at it and adding her own ideas: Disneyland, Beach, Zoo, Surprise Party, Camping.

30 Summer Bucket List Ideas

1. Get ice cream
2. Fly a kite
3. Geocache
4. Water balloon fun
5. Attend a local library event
6. Breakfast for dinner
7. Picnic dinner at the park
8. Family bike ride
9. Morning snuggles and story time
10. Night walk with flashlights and star gazing
11. Build a sand castle at the beach
12. Beach bonfire and s’mores
13. Build a fort for Family Movie Night
14. Go to an outdoor concert in the park
15. Make a cake from scratch and celebrate an un-birthday
16. Have a pajama dance party before bed
17. Go on a hike and picnic
18. Attend a local library event
19. Hunt for bugs on a nature walk
20. Road trip to a new town
21. Wash the cars
22. Visit a local CSA farm
23. Have a living room sleepover
24. Make playdough
25. Blow bubbles on the Golden Gate Bridge
26. Outdoor messy art play (sidewalk chalk, shaving cream, finger paint)
27. Host a tea party
28. Visit local Farmer’s Market
29. Visit a new playground
30. Paint a cardboard box

You can join The Happy Family Movement’s Summer Bucket List Challenge here.

For other bucket list ideas, check out Jen’s fun list here.

What’s on your Summer Bucket List? Share your ideas in the comments.