In our families, cousins make the world go round. Especially when your cousins are all near the same age and share common interests! So when my sister-in-law asked for activities rather than toys for our nephew’s birthday, I came up with an idea! Why don’t we have a cousin day! For birthdays we started including a little hand written gift certificate in with their card to spend a day together. What I love most about these days are that I get to see my nieces and nephews having fun with my kids, and it reminds me of how my husband and I grew up!
My boys and I love a project! So planning for a cousin day can mean going somewhere together or a day at home playing or watching a movie. With so many options, I found it easiest to write all of our ideas on a piece of paper and draw from them. When you have more than one child, I found this helpful by eliminating the arguments over who won on the decision of what we would do together. I won’t lie though, sometimes I take some options out because of weather concerns or lack of resources around the house! For example, if you don’t have the ingredients to make slime, you remove the “Science Lab” option from the lineup.
Fun Places We Like to Get Out and Go To:
Wichita Public Library
Tanganyika Wildlife Park
Botanica
Carousel Skate
Wichita Ice Center
Exploration Place
Sedgwick County Zoo
Aviate – Wichita Sports Forum
Great Plains Nature Center
Old Cowtown Museum
Museum of World Treasures
The Alley
Water Parks & Fountains
Great Plains Transportation Museum
Favorite Activities at Home:
Superheroes to the Rescue:
- Make your own costumes
- Write a comic book or act one out
- Create your own toolkit of superhero gadgets. Paper towel or toilet paper tubes make great cuffs and a Frisbee can easily turn into Captain America’s shield!
- We personally love the Melissa and Doug cardboard block set, which we use to set the scene for super hero action. We stack them up in different ways, bust through them, and start all over again. Superhero strength is often needed.
Lego Party:
- Legos are amazing. You can do about anything with them, which is why we love them. We put together sets (and attempt to follow directions) or I just let their imaginations run wild and build whatever they want. You can easily bring superheroes or cars into the mix too! Often, they build a building or a car, and then use that for their superheroes or race track scenery.
- Something fun we like to do is take a picture from a magazine or get your favorite book, and build one of the scenes they see in it!
Empty the Pantry:
- Bake cookies or make a pizza. We like to have bake off competitions and everyone is a judge.
- Have a picnic, in the backyard or a nearby park.
- Have the kids serve you. This is probably one of my favorite things!
Makeshift Movie Theater:
- Perfect for a rainy day, or any day! We make some popcorn and pick a movie, and relax!
- To put a spin on it, let the kids act out the movie! Have them put on their own play or musical, and I can promise an afternoon of laughter!
- For fun, grab the Halloween costumes or play in your closets, and let their imagination run wild.
Race Around the Track:
- Sidewalk chalk makes for a perfect race track and one easily able to be configured on the fly. We love to race with scooters, bikes or push dump trucks and tractors down the driveway. You can also run with these tracks too. This is a great idea if you need to get them out of the house and burn some energy!
- A random rug around the house can also work for racing cars! My mom figured this one out when the lines in her rug made the perfect track, or at least my son thought so. He and my niece raced the Barbie car against the Monster Truck!
Board Games:
- We LOVE board games. Any and all. Letting them take turns picking games and playing all together is one of my favorite indoor activities.
Science Lab:
- Make slime, silly putty or bath salts.
- Make a volcano with vinegar and baking soda! Always a crowd pleaser.
- If you are outside, try mixing diet coke and Mentos! Careful with this one, it can get messy. It results in a big geyser but definitely lots of fun.
Whatever they spend their time doing, as long as they are together, they will be happy. Celebrate National Cousins Day on July 24th this year!
