Activities for Families, Adults, and Kids

In-A-Day Activities

Our Activities offer creative ideas that you can do with your family or modify for a unique date idea. When you add a little imagination to activities you create memories that last a lifetime.

A new In-a-day are posted a few times a year. Check back or enjoy browsing our extensive archives for other great ideas.

Like us on the Twitter link above so you don't miss a post!
Ready for vacation ideas? Check out our fun travel ideas.

Check out our Travel Ideas

Make a jar rock garden

11/12/2015

0 Comments

If you have kids, there is a good chance that you have several plastic or glass peanut butter or jelly jars that you can save after you have used them up. Don't throw them away, they make excellent impromptu rock gardens. I always recommend plastic for safety, if you can, but with adult supervision carrying around a glass jar to collect with is fine.

To make your "garden", simply clean out the jars and then take a walk around your nearby park or even your backyard. The kids can place soil, sand, and cute rocks they find to make the bottom of their jar surface. At many of the dollar stores you can find small fake plants, decorations, and even some plastic animals to use to decorate their garden. Place the lid back on and you have a cute little decoration for their room. Pour it out and remake them when ever you need a quick activity.

These can also be themed for holidays to serve as decorations for the table. Place holiday colors and decorations inside instead of nature themed terrariums.

0 Comments

Make Family Holiday Cards

11/13/2014

0 Comments

Instead of buying your holiday cards this year, maybe you want to consider having a weekend project to make your own cards. Not only is it a great way to keep in touch with those you have not seen in a while, it can be a fun, crafty weekend. Here are some ideas for cards:

1.) Take fun and goofy pictures. You can recreate a winter day or make it specific to what your family likes to do as a hobby. Places like Walgreens make it super easy to print them out in postcard and card form.
2) Sit down as a family and write out what you have been up to all year. You can do it together or do it in sections with each person writing a paragraph. I love getting these type of letters. It makes me feel as if I am important enough to know what is going on in the lives of my friends. You can make it funny or serious.
3) Be crafty and make homemade cards. Pull out the glue and the scraps and make them individually. The kids will enjoy being creative and the recipients will love the personal touch.

0 Comments

Pass Your Family Recipes

4/24/2014

2 Comments

A couple of years back, I went to a cooking class and the chef said something that I never forgot. Basically, he said that there is nothing sadder then having a secret family recipe die with the family member that created it. That stuck with me and prompted me to write my own family my secret recipe book. What I had realized is that, while it is great to have that one recipe that my family loved and that only I could create, that food brings comfort to families, and just the sense of taste and the smells associated with the food can bring back fond memories. I would want my family to still have those fond memories. So I went online to one of the discount photo book makers, made recipe book, and made copies for everyone in my family.

In my recipe book, I put the recipe along with a picture of whom the recipe was handed down from with a picture of them as well as a small clip about my memories of when they made it. For example, my dad loved making his favorite Torpedoes and I cooked them often with him and then eventually for him. I had a picture of him that I placed in the book and a brief write up about how he made them. (He use to make one super hot torpedo and you never knew which one it was until you bit into it so it was sort of a game-style dinner). My mother was born in Ireland and she had a unique way of making her Bubble and Squeak, so I put a picture of her and what the dinner meant to her.

Be creative and consider including some of your other family members to include their special recipes and put a picture of them with it. If you have an older family member that does not write on the computer but has that amazing recipe that you must have, see if he or she has the recipe written in his or her handwriting, and take a picture of it, and put the picture in your recipe book. I cherish the recipe my mother wrote by hand of her famous cheesecake. Seeing her writing brings back fond memories for me as well.

2 Comments

My Funny Valentine

2/6/2014

0 Comments

Valentine's day does not need to be stressful or super costly. Have some fun by making your day completely goofy with an overkill on romantic gestures!

1) Make each other cards with crayons. You can do this as an activity together or your cards can be pre-made.
2) Go on a walk and pick your Valentine a flower. Make sure and present it to him/her with over-exaggeration.
3) Watch a cheesy valentine movie together. The more goofy romantic the better.
4) Make each other the "coupons" with funny things like "I will pick up your socks one time without rolling my eyes".
5) Cook spaghetti for dinner and try to do the lady and the tramp maneuver with a piece of spaghetti.

0 Comments

Virtual New Years Eve in Time Square

12/26/2013

1 Comment

New York is is one of the busiest places in the world on New Year's Eve. Cameras and news crews gather around Time Square to celebrate a new year's arrival. Tuning in virtually allows you to people watch as the crowds gather (no, you cannot see complete faces), see the action, hear the traffic sounds, and watch the ball drop right from your computer! Yes, I know they usually have it on TV, but this way you see it from a different angle as the crowds are gathering and the energy is building. Your virtual tour of Times Square in New York City does not have to be only on New Year's Eve, it can actually be anytime of the year. As I sat watching it while writing this up, I was able to count 6 Santas walking by, one Smurf, a Statue of Liberty dancer, and two firetrucks passing by. If nothing else, it makes you happy you are out of the cold and the traffic!

To view Times Square go to the EarthCam(dot)com and direct it to Times Square.

1 Comment

SantaCon 2013

12/12/2013

0 Comments

Now, this sounds like a Merry, good time! Well, you have probably heard of Comic-Con but have you ever heard of SantaCon? This is just a fun-loving, get-together bar crawl that is in 41 countries to date and in 277 locations around the world. Each location has its own feel, but all have the same thing in common, you dress up like Santa!

According to the Santacon website, you must assume that the event you are going to is adult-only unless specifically stated on the site map. You also must address everyone at the event as Santa and have a jolly ho-ho-ho in response. You do not have to dress up exactly as Santa, but rather your costume can be open to interpretation. Seriously, this sounds awesome!

0 Comments

Haunted Houses

10/18/2013

0 Comments

Haunted housed are iconic for Halloween fun. I personally have a love-hate relationship with being scared out of my wits, and haunted houses are right up there with turning off all the house lights and watching a crazy scary movie. The difference, however, between a scary movie and walking through a haunted house is that you can't play it cool and just close your eyes. Some of these places on the list are downright nightmare inducing. Just check out some of their videos on their websites and it might scare you enough that you won't have to travel there to feed your fears.

Warning: Some of these videos are NOT for the faint of heart! View with caution or at least with a fun friend to hide behind!

The Eastern Penitentiary: Philadelphia, PA, a real former prison and a place frequented by the Ghost Hunters (and one of the scariest episodes I have seen) hosts the Terror Behind the Walls. One of America's largest haunted houses is actually located inside what is reported to be one of the most haunted spots in the country.

Erebus: Pontiac, Michigan Check out Dr. J. Colbert time machine.
  "Erebus the 4 story Haunted House was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Largest Walk-Through Haunted Attraction from Aug. 2005 - Sept. 2009" They have a great video on the website of their attraction.

Cutting Edge Haunted House: Fort worth, Texas. This one is all out creepy! Located in a 100-year-old abandoned meat packing plant the stage is set to a human processing area. Based in a two-story Bodies are "Processed from the levels".

Frightland: Middletown, DE. This has been rated on the most scariest attractions by the travel channel. It is a complete theme park of all things scary. Zombie prisons, cemeteries, a house of fear, and my personal fear, a haunted attic. Yikes!
Howl-O-Scream, Courtesy of the Sea World in FL, VA, TX. Sea world is transformed into a park of horrors after dark. Although each location has its own genre, it is full of terror. They host zombies, Ripper row, the Cannibal, and a forest from the Blair Witch project.
Busch Gardens Tampa, which is normally divided into sections by country, becomes four Terror-tories: England's Ripper, France's Demon Street, Germany's Vampire Point, and so much more.

The Grove, Sanger, CA. Welcome to a haunted forest straight out of the Blair Witch Project!  This place has  haunted hayrides and a maze that will deplete all of your senses.

The House of Shock, New Orleans, LA. Everyone knows that New Orleans has a long history with Voodoo and this haunted house touts a heavy satanic theme which can make it one of the most scary and intense haunted houses. If you are too afraid to go inside, they have an outdoor festival.
To calm your nerves they do have a full bar, as is New Orleans' style.

Fear Fair, Seymour, IN. If your idea of a fun haunted place includes scary movie monsters, this is the place for you! Hollywood meets screampark. This is for guests 18 and older only. They even have a few Fear Cams on the site to watch the visitors reactions.

The ScareHouse, Pittsburgh, PA. Located in a place already thought to be haunted, a 100-year-old former Elks lodge hosts three different themed attractions. Seriously, the Psycho-Bunny on the front of their website is enough to scare me off!

0 Comments

In-A-Day Activities

Make a jar rock garden

Make Family Holiday Cards

Pass Your Family Recipes

My Funny Valentine

Virtual New Years Eve in Time Square

SantaCon 2013

Haunted Houses

Categories

Archives