I’m not sure when everyone else in the blogging world writes their posts!?! I seem to be doing mine late at night.  I guess when you read what I have been up to today, you will understand why!

How we spent day 4:

• Woke up to a tidy house. Thank you kids and hubby!

The Wind Chimes they made at the craft workshop & one of the balloon animals they got at the circus show

• The girls made wind chimes at the hardware store kid’s clinic. TEMPTATION: A pack of two nightlights were calling my name “buy me, you know you want me, I would look so cool in your kid’s room!”)

• Went to a beach that we haven’t been to before
• Went home to get changed and have lunch. TEMPTATION: I was starting to feel a bit hungry on the drive back to our place. Had to talk myself out of stopping off at my favourite bakery and getting a sugar donut.

• Went and watched a juggling/circus act at the mall. TEMPTATION: Curse those mall ice creams! There’s just something about sitting together and having a relaxing snack to finish off an outing.

• The girls got taught how to do the diabolo in a workshop after the show. The younger kids and I enjoyed going up and down the escalators over and over again! TEMPTATION: There was a coin operated massage chair, that looked very inviting!
• We got some balloon animals made after the show
• DD6 won a $10 mall voucher at the show!

DS4 looking at worms up close!

• On the way home we stopped by our local mall to go see the Science Roadshow. DD2 was in heaven unlocking and locking a larger than normal lock with a larger than normal key at an exhibit that showed how the inside of a key lock works. By the way! I didn’t even think about the mall ice creams! yay!!
• We rented DD4′s free DVD
• DD4 watched his DVD while the others pottered around
• Had dinner at home
• Hubby and I spent some lovely quality time together and had a nice dessert treat

MONEY SPENT TODAY: $0.00

MONEY GAINED TODAY: $10 DD6′s mall voucher, $45 supermakert voucher I got in the mail from my grocery loyalty points, $10 voucher for free online grocery delivery. TOTAL: $65 (We spend nothing, and gain $65! That’s crazy!)

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED TODAY:

• Although we did a lot of things today, I felt like at any time, if things got to be too much, we could just go home and unwind. Once again this meant that there was no pressure or an expectation that we needed to do this or that. Since we had no real concrete plans, I would tell the children what we were doing next as we came to it (eg I wouldn’t tell them we were doing A, then B then C). That way there was room to really guage what activity would suit the mood of the children at that time.
• Having an idea of what things are available to do in the area that you are in is helpful. Thanks to the research I did at the beinning of the week about what events were on and what activities to do, I always had a couple of options available on what to do next.
• Being prepared and organised paid off, but there is always room for improvement. Packing food and water not only extends your outing (like I said in “day two“), but it means you are less likely to have to stop off and buy food – very helpful when you are on a spending detox! Going to the beach was another spur of the moment thing, so I had not packed any towels or swimsuits etc. The kids got a bit wet (some more than others), and because we weren’t too far from home, we just popped back home to get dressed. I’m thinking that having a couple of towels that lived in the car wouldn’t be a bad thing. I remember a couple of summers ago, the sand toys lived in the boot, because we were always going to the beach.
• Sometimes you can make things work and sometimes you might have to revisit it another time. Once again the younger ones weren’t too interested in the craft workshop. Unfortunately the placement of the craft table was a little bit further from the play area and outside area. So trying to be with 2 sets of kids was proving to be a bit difficult, especially since the craft activity this time was a bit more tricky and needed more adult help. Thankfully a lovely grandma, assisted one of my daughters who was stuck. I thanked her thoroughly and she seemed happy to help. *bless!* I think this craft workshop is one that I will have to revisit when the kids get a bit older or I will have to get creative in how to manage the children (eg in the past my friend and I arranged to take turns taking the older children to an activity while the other stayed back with the younger children). Keeping the younger kids busy and happy by going up and down the escalator can definitely be counted as getting “creative”!
• You feel a stronger family bond when you all pitch in and help out. There were times when the older girls would push the pram for me while I was holding DS4, or would help with food prep or everyone helped to clear the car of food and wet clothes etc. It just makes you feel a sense of togetherness.
• The sun just makes me want to go outdoors! The weather was really bizarre this week. It seemed to know whenever we wanted to go out, and stayed nice for that duration of time! On Monday it poured down. On Tuesday it was nice for half the day (the part where we went out). On Wednesday it rained and was cold. Today it was sunny and warm for most of the day.
• Even though kids are kids (and I had the sort of day that you would expect when you go out with children who are aged 8 through to 2), in the end, I feel like I had a great day with the kids! And that is a good feeling!

You may also be interested in:

Is it possible to not spend any money during the school holidays?

Spending detox: Day 1

Spending detox: Day 2

Spending detox: Day 3

Spending detox: Day 5

Spending detox: Day 6

Lessons Learned & Spending detox: Day 7