Building with your kids

The Home Depot and Lowes both have fun and FREE building workshops that you can do with your kids.

The Home Depot does theirs on the First Saturday of every month from 9am to Noon. If you want to see what they're doing ahead of time got to Homedepot.com and search for "kids workshops". We've gotten there as late as 11:30 and still got to make something, but the later you go the more chance that they'll have run out of the original project, but they usually have older ones that you can do. They also give out an apron (you may have to ask for it) and pins (specific to the project) that the kids can collect and display on their aprons. No registration needed.

Lowes does theirs on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays - usually a slightly smaller project than Home Depots but always lots of fun. They only run from 10am until 11am. They too give out aprons, (and goggles - which they get to keep) and when they're done they get a patch (specific to the project) which can be sewn onto the apron. Go to www.lowesbuildandgrow.com to see what's coming up. You can register online but you don't need to but if you do they will send you a reminder a couple of days before the event.

Boone County Park’s Concert and Show Schedule

Bring your own lawn chairs and blankets. The rain out number is: 859-334-2283.

Shakespeare in the Park performed by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company FREE Performances are held In Boone Woods Park.
July 18 Romeo & Juliet 7:00 PM

Family Movie Nights— Schedule FREE
Family Movie Nights are held on Friday evenings at dusk in Boone Woods Park. In case of rain, movies will start at 7:30 at Conner Middle School.

July 10 - Space Jam - PG; 88 minutes; 1996
July 17 - Never Ending Story - PG; 94 minutes; 1984
July 24 - Tom Sawyer (1973) - G; 99 minutes; 1973
July 31 - Back to the Future - PG;115 minutes; 1985
August 7 - Madagascar-Back to Africa - PG; 89 minutes; 2008
August 14 - Love Bug - G; 108 minutes; 1969
August 21 - Muppet Treasure Island - G; 99 minutes; 1996
August 28 - Bedknobs and Broomsticks - G; 118 minutes; 1971

Family Fun Night FREE Family Fun Night is held at 7:30 in Boone Woods Park.
June 20 Madcap Puppets – Aesop’s Classic Fables

Concert at Creekside— Schedule – FREE Concerts are held at 7:30 at the stage in Boone Woods Park.
June 12 Blue Chip City Big Band
June 19 Swingtime
June 26 Florence Community Band
July 3 Army Band Concert

Bowling

Florence Bowl has a special on Monday nights - just $1 a game per person. Shoes are $2, but since we have our own (even Amanda - I picked them up at Villiage Discounters for $3). We can have Family Home Evening at the Bowling alley for $6. You're allowed to bring in food, they want you to buy your drinks there, but they do have a pitcher with ice water on the counter. We bring sandwiches, so we have dinner and bowling for the 3 of us for $6. See the Deal links section for a link to their website where they have a coupon for buy 1 game get 1 free (not valid on Monday nights)

Free Fridays at the Cincinnati Museum Center

Ok, this is one of Amanda's favorite things for the summer - Free Friday's at the Museum Center. Free Fridays allows the public to visit all three museums at Cincinnati Museum Center from 4 to 8 p.m.—admission is complimentary. There is a charge for parking - $5 per vehicle, but after 4:30 p.m. it goes down to $3 per vehicle.

Free Fridays dates for 2009 are:
May 22
June 26
July 24
August 21
September 11

Things to note - it does get crowded especially as the night goes on but the one is May is usually not nearly as crowded as the rest. Also we've found that if you get there early (I try to be there exactly at 4:30 to save the $2 in parking) and do the Children's museum FIRST (that's the one that gets the most crowded), then when it starts getting crowded, we move on to either the Cincinnati History or Natural History Museums. They are never crowded, and there's lots of fun stuff to do in them too, even for the little kids. In the Cincinnati History Museum Amanda has always liked the trains, fun for adults too since it shows how Cincinnati looked in the past, there's also a Thomas the train set tucked in behind the trains. She also enjoys the trolly car, and the Riverboat. Then in the Natural History Museum, there's the sand pit and the caves.

The offer includes the Cincinnati History Museum, Children’s Museum and the Museum of Natural History & Science. It does not include special exhibits or OMNIMAX® films.