Simple, Fun Workouts for the Unmotivated Mom (Part 1)

Dear Mom Who Hates to Exercise,

I know exactly how you feel. I am right there with you. It's kind of hard to fathom that some people actually enjoy working out. Isn't it? Seriously?! Who actually likes spandex and sports bras and sweat (ick!) and shoes you have to lace? Not to mention expensive gym memberships, child care arrangements, etc. Talk about a pain in the you-know-what!

I don't know about you, but I've tried it all. Step aerobics, Zumba, jogging (well...sorta!), spinning, yoga, weight training, Pilates...I have yet to fall in love with anything that involves sweat. Or effort. And don't even suggest that water aerobics would help me avoid sweating. Because I hate bathing suits. (Which I might hate less if I exercised more. Ugh.)

Anyway, the point is--I know exactly where you are coming from. I can promise you that this is NOT a post from a crazy, exercise-loving mom. This is a post from a desperate-to-get-in-shape-but-hating-every-stinking-minute-of-it mom. I was born without an "exercise gene". In its place, I was gifted with a "lazy gene". Maybe you have one, too? Let's redefine the term "exercise" and instead, you and I will just strive to stay active, be good role models for our kids and have a bunch of fun. Okay?

Ashley

The Card Game Workout

The idea for this workout was stolen from fitness guru, Jillian Michaels, herself. It works like this:

1. Remove all of the face cards from a deck of playing cards (We use something fun like Angry Birds Star Wars cards or whatever is handy--Jillian probably doesn't.).

2. Leave the ACES in the deck and the numbers 2-10 for each suit. If you have a couple JOKER cards, throw those in there too!

3. Decide which FOUR exercises you and your kiddos want to do. There are some suggestions below. It works best if you chose a variety of body parts to work with. Trust me--you don't want to pick all ab exercises or all leg moves! I would recommend choosing at least one cardio-type exercise to really get your heart pumping. The jumping jacks are a favorite here, but if you're up for the challenge try burpees.

(Some of these you may have to Google if you don't know what they are. And odds are if you have to look it up, it isn't a beginner move. Haha!)

• Jumping Jacks
• Crunches or Sit-ups
• Push-ups (Make this super fun by putting a bowl of popcorn down and picking up a piece with your tongue as you get near the floor!)
• Squats
• Lunges
• Calf Raises
• Burpees
• Superman

4. Assign each exercise to a suit. For example, you might choose to do HEARTS as Jumping Jacks, DIAMONDS as Crunches, SPADES as Squats and CLUBS as Push-ups. Write the exercises and the symbols on a large piece of paper, like the one above, and post it somewhere visible to you and the kiddos.

5. The ACES will be a one-minute rest and the JOKERS can either be a 2 minute dance party or a 30 second plank, whichever you prefer. My kids live for the dance party! It's their favorite part!

6. Jillian thinks you are going to do this ENTIRE. DECK. OF. CARDS. Now that is some funny stuff right there!! Good luck with that. Ha! We usually do about half the deck. I just eyeball it. I do fan through the half we are doing and make sure there is at least one ACE (rest) and one JOKER (dance party) in the half we choose.

7. Grab some water and a clock with a timer. Turn on some fun, upbeat music and get moving! Flip the first card and do the number of reps and the corresponding exercise it goes along with. For example, a 10 of SPADES would be 10 squats using our chart above. Move onto the next card as quickly as possible. 

8. Try to keep going until you get through all the cards. Jillian has nothing on my 7 year old. Nothing. That boy is one TOUGH trainer! Make sure you don't take yourself too seriously. Laugh! Be silly! Worry about your own form and let them do goofy push-ups if they want.


 **WARNING!! Your kids will make you do this EVERY. STINKING. DAY. They will not forget. They will beg. They will nag. Who needs a trainer when you have kids?!

The Jenga Workout

This is a fun workout that you can make as challenging as you like. There are 2 variations of this game. The first will be a little more game and a little less exercise. The second will definitely give you a fun workout! 

Grab a Sharpie marker and at least HALF of your Jenga pieces. Write simple exercises on one side of the Jenga piece. Some should be a little easier and some a little more difficult. Don't be afraid to vary the repetition number and duplicate the exercise if you start running out of creativity. (So 10 Push-ups on one piece and 5 Push-ups on another.) Here are a few ideas for you. 

• 30 sec. Plank
• 20 Jumping Jacks
• 30 sec. High Knees
• 20 Crunches
• 10 Push-ups
• Jog in place for 1 min.
• 10 Lunges
• 5 Squats
• 10 Calf Raises
• 10 Karate Kicks
• Hop on one foot for 15 sec. then the other for 15 sec.

Easy Version: Play the game as usual, having everyone do the exercise challenge on the Jenga piece when it is taken from the tower. Replace the piece somewhere in/on the tower and continue playing until the tower falls.

Challenge Version: Play the game as usual, having everyone do the activity on the Jenga piece when it is taken from the tower. If a piece is blank, or blank on one side, grab your marker and write a new exercise challenge on the piece. Replace the piece somewhere on/in the tower and continue playing until the tower falls. (If a piece has an exercise challenge on both sides, the person who removed the piece will choose which exercise the group completes.)

Have fun!

Don't miss the other 2 upcoming posts in this series. Get new posts delivered directly to your inbox by entering your e-mail address at the top, right under the blog header. (Mobile users will need to click "View Web Version".) You can find me on Facebook HERE.

Got rain? Make rainbows! ~ 3 Rainy Day Activities for Kids

We wrapped up a unit on colors and rainbows a few weeks ago and I blogged about it in a Living the Lutz Life post yesterday. I wanted to expand on the activities a little more and give directions in case you wanted to do these fun projects with your own kiddos! Since today is rainy and much colder than the low 80s we had yesterday, I figured it was the perfect day to share some rainbow crafts!

These activities would be a great way to tie in the Bible story of Noah's Ark, where after 40 days and nights of rain...God sent a rainbow as a sign that the flood was over and of His faithful promise to Noah and his family.

Color Mixing
To show the kids how two primary colors can mix together to form secondary colors, I filled up several jars with water and red, blue and yellow food coloring. I used glass canning jars, but you could use any transparent container. I will warn you that I filled and refilled these jars at least 3 times, because they loved it and wanted to do it again and again.

We did this activity on the opened door of the dishwasher, to minimize the mess. I placed a couple towels under the door, for any splashes or spills and had them wear old paint shirts. You will want to provide a few large, empty jars or containers for them to mix the water and create new colors. We had fun trying to make a musical xylophone by varying the levels of water in the jar to make different "notes" and tapping the jars with a spoon.

When all your playing is done, pour out the jars of water onto the lid of the dishwasher and slowly close the door. Use the "drain" button on your dishwasher to empty out the colored water. You may want to pour a few jars of clean water onto the door and repeat the process to wash away all the colored water.

Paper Rainbows
To prepare this activity, cut one inch strips (lengthwise) from red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple construction paper. Give your preschooler or lower elementary child a ruler, scissors and a pencil. Measure the pieces and cut accordingly:

Red ~ 10 inches
Orange ~ 9 inches
Yellow ~ 8 inches
Green ~ 7 inches
Blue ~ 6 inches
Purple ~ 5 inches

After all of the pieces have been cut, stack them so that the red is on the top and the purple is on the bottom (rainbow order). Line the pieces up at one end and staple them. Take all of the loose ends and make them line up on the other side, forming an arc. Staple the second side. Voila! A free-standing rainbow AND a math lesson. Cool!

Recycled Rainbow Swirl Crayons
This is a perfect way to repurpose all those broken crayons you might have stashed away somewhere! Gather up all your old, broken crayons and peel off their paper. Break the crayons into smallish pieces and spread evenly among paper or foil baking cups. Place the baking cups into a foil-lined casserole dish or cookie sheet. Make sure cups are at least 1/3 full. Bake your broken crayons in a 250 degree oven for about 8-10 or until most of the crayon pieces are melted. Some of the crayons may be unmelted, but they should look mostly flat on the top. Allow to cool completely and room the baking cup wrapper. Enjoy using your new rainbow swirl crayons!

Living the Lutz Life: Jackson's Surprise Party, Easter and the Midwest Homeschool Convention

We are in the middle of April and I feel like I am just now recovering from the whirlwind of a month we had in March. I lost my camera for a few weeks and my husband just recently found it hiding in our van. (Love that man!!) Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of picture taking going on there for awhile. 

I fell into a bit of a "funk" at the beginning of April (or was I simply recovering from March?) and my motivation, even for blogging, completely tanked. I got the Fresh Food Deals posted each week, but that's about it. I am finally back in the game and I've been posting up a storm this week. Here's what our family was up to during the last half of March and the beginning of April. 

For kindergarten, Jackson did a unit on colors and learned that "God makes our world beautiful". We sorted Crayola crayons by color families and graphed them, made our own recycled rainbow crayons, learned about the colors of the rainbow, mixed colored water in glass jars (on the dishwasher door) and measured/cut strips of paper to make construction paper rainbows. We continued to work on reading and writing short vowel words, addition and telling time.



Jackson wanted a surprise party for his 6th birthday, so that's exactly what he got! We invited family to come and surprise Jackson and he was so shocked that he almost cried. He had a great time with his cousins, loved the Bowser's castle cake that I made for him and was thrilled with all of his new gifts. It's hard to believe he is already 6 years old. Time seems to fly by more quickly with each passing year.

Our church held an amazing Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter and the kids had a BLAST! 50,000 plastic eggs stuffed with 100,000 pieces of candy...let's just say we had more candy from the egg hunt than we got last Halloween!

The kids helped me make a resurrection garden for our dining room table and Bill and I tried to put the Easter focus on Jesus as much as we could (and minimize the bunny). One night we made resurrection rolls out of jumbo marshmallows and some leftover pizza dough. I got the biggest giggle out of Charlotte biting into hers and exclaming, "Oh NO!! Where my marshmallow go? We need make new ones!"

Bill and I were able to get away by ourselves a couple weeks ago and went to the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati. We sat in on a few workshops, including one from Ruth at The Better Mom and another from Crystal at Money Saving Mom. It was extremely nice to have two whole days where we could be Bill and Ashley instead of "Daddy" and "Mommy". I enjoyed browsing the gigantic vendor hall--filled with every homeschool curriculum, manipulative, workbook, game or supply you could imagine. It was fun running into a few friends from church while we were there, too!

What has your family been doing now that spring has finally arrived?

10 Fun Family Activities for Celebrating the Resurrection

I grew up thinking that Easter was a day to celebrate the coming of spring. A day to wear a new frilly dress and hat, to have dinner with extended family and to hunt for brightly colored eggs among the new green blades of grass. Easter always seemed "empty" to me. We didn't go to church growing up, so celebrating Easter just left me confused. Would someone, anyone, please tell me why are we getting baskets full of candy and worshipping a giant bunny who lays eggs?

Fast forward to 2013. As a mom of two young children, I desperately want to put Jesus Christ back into Easter. My husband and I want to impart the true meaning of Easter to them at an early age. The fallen world...the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross...His death and resurrection...the promise of eternal life. I don't know about you, but that seems like an overwhelming responsibility to this mom. Especially in a world filled with enormous chocolate bunnies, baskets as big as a small child and no sign of Jesus anywhere.

In searching for ways to share the true meaning of Easter with my kids--I came across some great ideas for craft projects, edible object lessons, and scriptures about the events leading up to the resurrection. Here are a few of my favorites!

Egg Ideas

 

 

Mommy Savers has the coolest idea for putting small glow sticks or glow bracelets (get these cheap at Dollar Tree!) inside of your plastic eggs and holding an indoor or outdoor glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt! You could tie this into having the light of Jesus inside of us and shining God's love for the world to see.

 

 

Head over to Family Volley to find out how to make an Easter egg garland with a simple piece of ribbon and some plastic eggs. Add a small object (such as a piece of bread, a few dimes, a nail, etc.) and Bible verse to each egg to tell the resurrection story. Find the list of objects and scriptures here. Alternately, you could have the kids hunt for the story eggs or display them in a basket as a centerpiece on your table.

 

 

What about turning all of those colored eggs from the hunt into an opportunity for prayer and praise? Using this idea for Easter egg prayers from Our Family for His Glory assign each color egg its own theme (praise, confession, thankfulness, etc.--check the link for all the details!). So if your child finds, say 3 yellow eggs, they tell God 3 things they are thankful for. If they find 2 blue eggs, they might confess 2 sins. Isn't that a fabulous way to turn an ordinary egg hunt into a way to bring praise and honor to our Father in heaven?

 

 

Want to share the Good News of the resurrection with your kids' friends or your neighbors? Get your older kids involved in this project! Have some fun "egging" the neighborhood, by placing a dozen candy-filled plastic eggs in the yards of families who would enjoy their own personal egg hunt! Leave a note like the one above that says "Don't be discouraged when you find the empty egg. It's a simple reminder of Jesus' empty tomb--for He is RISEN!" {I absolutely love, love, love this idea and we are going to "egg" a couple of houses on our street and share some of the abudance of candy we got at a church egg hunt last weekend!}

 

 





Edible Lessons

Catholic Icing shows you how to make these cute resurrection cookies using part of a chocolate donut, a chocolate sandwich cookie, coconut "grass" tinted green and a graham cracker. Cute!

Make these creative Crown of Thorns cookies on Good Friday, using a sugar cookie (or apple slice cut crosswise), peanut butter (or other nut butter) and broken pretzel twists. Talk about the broken pretzels and our broken, sinful world. Share the story of Jesus being arrested, beaten, mocked with a crown of thorns and hung on the cross to die for our sins.

Impress Your Kids shows how to use crescent rolls, butter, cinnamon/sugar and a large marshmallow to create hollow Resurrection Rolls to represent the empty tomb. I also saw on Catholic Icing where their family tried out this technique using colored marshmallow Peeps instead of the regular marshmallow, leaving hollow rolls that were colored on the inside.

These Easter Story Cookies over at Women Living Well, might be my favorite! Using ingredients (broken nuts, vinegar, spices) that each represent a different part of the Easter story, you mix up the cookie dough and then the kids seal the "tomb" (oven) closed with tape and guard it like soldiers. After the cookies have baked, you leave them overnight (imagine what it was like for Jesus' friends to leave his body in the tomb that day) and in the morning you open the door to the oven, revealing your hollow cookies! Awesome!

Resurrection Gardens

Ann Voskamp, who blogs at A Holy Experience, shares how she and her daughter made an Easter grace garden. I absolutely LOVE her idea to place a tea light on one of the seven stones of the path, each night between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Then on Good Friday, they leave it completely dark. On Easter Sunday, they place a butterfly on the top to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus.  

My friend, Kate, made this adorable garden with her girls. She told me that she found the large terracotta tray at Hobby Lobby (check their website for 40% coupon you can print or show on your phone) and painted it a bright, cheerful color she already had at home. They used a clay pot on its side (you could also paint the inside black or brown) for the tomb and rocks from the yard. The sticks are hot glued to form the crosses. Kate said she saw artificial moss at both Jo-Ann's and Hobby Lobby. This type of garden would be something you could store and reuse year after year.

Mustard Seeds, takes this project a step further by using wheat berries to sprout "grass" for the hill of Calvary. She also suggests having your family write some sins on small flat stones--because the path to the cross was paved by our sins. I really like her idea of putting a clothespin wrapped in white cloth, into the tomb on Good Friday to represent Jesus. She has her family put their sin stones into the tomb as well. Then on Easter morning, she discards the stones (our sins are forgiven--gone) and the clothespin ("He is not here. He is alive!") and leaves only the white empty cloth for her children to discover in the open tomb. Sooo cool!

Do you like these fun Easter ideas? Which is your favorite? I would love for you to share this post with your friends!

Living the Lutz Life: March Snowstorm, Stone Soup, Nature Walk & Missing Tooth

Last week we got a pretty decent March snowfall that caused all of the local schools to close. The snow was just perfect for building snowmen and making snowballs! The kids had a blast with their new snow friend.

                                               

I took Jackson sledding, but Charlotte thinks sledding is "too scary" so she played dress-up at her cousin Cora's house instead.

Jackson and I completed a unit on rocks last week and spent one afternoon making stone soup (note the "townspeople" who brought food to put in the soup! Ha!).

The temperatures were in the high 50s last Saturday, just 4 days after our big snowfall, and we took advantage of the beautiful day by walking around at Hobart Urban Nature Preserve. Note to self...buy rainboots for future spring nature walks!

 

We ran into the Easter Bunny at church last weekend! Charlotte was not a fan. at. all.  She wanted nothing whatsoever to do with him. Jackson, on the other hand, thought he was pure awesomeness.

See this kid?? You have never witnessed any 5 year old go as postal as this one did when he lost his first tooth on Monday night!! Raging hysteria, I'm tellin' ya. Don't let this sleepy morning after picture fool you. Head over to YouTube and watch it for yourself!

How did your son or daughter react to losing his/her first tooth?

Easy Hot Cocoa with Pumpkin Puree

My kids begged me to make them hot cocoa this morning and in an attempt to score some extra kid love, I agreed. Of course, I am always looking for ways to sneak in some additional nutrition or remake a recipe to be healthier. The pumpkin flavor is hard to detect in this hot cocoa and my little taste testers raved about it!

Canned pumpkin is on sale this week and I have been looking for other ways to work it into my children's meals because it is high in fiber and vitamin A. I typically add a couple spoonfuls to their applesauce along with some cinnamon and we love pumpkin waffles. I still cannot believe these muffins with pumpkin or carrot, peanut butter and banana are the most popular recipe on my blog! 

Seriously though, you can only use so much pumpkin. If I have a partial can, I freeze one tablespoon portions in an ice cube tray and pop the pumpkin cubes out into a freezer bag. That way I can add a cube to this hot cocoa, a bowl of oatmeal, applesauce or use multiple cubes when baking. {16 T. = 1 cup} No ice cube tray? Simply freeze one tablespoon blobs onto a cookie sheet and freeze!

Easy Hot Cocoa with Pumpkin Puree

Serves 2+

2 c. milk*

2 T. pumpkin puree

2 T. honey or sweetener of choice (more if desired)

2 t. pure vanilla extract

1 T. cocoa powder

marshmallows for serving (optional)

Mix pumpkin, honey, vanilla and cocoa in a small saucepan to form a thick chocolate paste.

Turn stove to med-low and gradually whisk in the milk. Heat until not quite simmering.

Pour into mugs and top with marshmallows for serving. This makes 2 adult size or 3 child size servings. Add a little brewed coffee for a grown-up mocha treat!

*Feel free to use a non-dairy milk, like almond milk, and adjust the sweetness as needed.

For a single serving--Mix 1 T. pumpkin, 1 T. honey, 1 t. vanilla and 1/2 T. cocoa in a large mug. Stir to form a paste. Gradually pour in 1 c. of milk, stir well and microwave 1-2 min. until hot. Stir again and add marshmallows.

Living the Lutz Life: Why I Should Never, Ever Roller Skate & 100 Days of Homeschooling

 

The bigger they are...the harder they fall. In my lifetime, I have broken my foot swing dancing, crashed a moped into a pine tree, fallen down a large flight of stairs at a school assembly (I was the teacher!), gotten a permanent dent in my shin from skiing and even burned my knee once on a sandwich maker (It was college-don't ask! Ha!). And that is only a small sampling of my klutziness. The point is that I am an accident waiting for a place to happen. This was proven yet again, last Tuesday, when I took Jackson for his homeschool gym day at the roller skating rink.

 

 

 We were having a great time until I fell I down an itty bitty 3 inch "ramp" at the get on/get off point of the rink. I was so busy taking pictures that I lost my footing, rolled backward and wiped out something major--jamming my elbow AND my camera into the very hard floor. I wish I could have seen it, because it was probably hysterical! I put on my best "brave mommy" face and sucked up the impending tears (It really hurt!). After some elbow ice, the hokey pokey and a few more laps around...we called it a day. Although my elbow was not broken, my camera was.

Without a working camera, my blog plans for the week were at a stand-still. I will make it up to you this week--I promise! My sister and my niece came over on Thursday to help us celebrate Valentine's Day and Jackson's 100th day of kindergarten. (Thanks for taking the pictures, Erin!)

 

For our 100th Day Celebration the kids made a tower using 100 cups, played a game to see how many dice rolls it would take to reach 100, made snack mix using ten each of ten different snack foods, and drew a picture of what they would buy with $100. We also decorated homemade sugar cookies to share with their grandparents for Valentine's Day. It was a really fun day that Jackson had been looking forward to for months.

Help make this embarrassed mom feel a little better by sharing a time you were "less than graceful" in the comments below!

Living the Lutz Life: Penguins, Movie Night & Newport Aquarium



This is a new weekly feature for 2013, giving you a peek into our day-to-day life and serving as a digital journal for me and my family. Take time to savor these precious days and don't forget to take LOTS of pictures! 

 

I didn't post Living the Lutz Life two weeks ago, because it was a super lame week and we didn't really do anything. Well, I shouldn't say we didn't do anything. I had a bad chest cold most of the week and we had just begun our penguin unit, so there wasn't much to write about. (Not that there are boatloads of people who read these posts, but I know there are a handful of you who do! Thank you!!)

On the last day of January, Bill and I took Jackson out for some one-on-one time to see the movie Wreck-It Ralph. Taking the kids out once a month, individually, is one of my monthly goals. Our first stop was to Hobby Lobby, so Jackson could make his very first purchase with his own money. He had been saving Christmas money and after much consideration, decided to buy a 16 inch Yoshi backpack. It was so cute to watch him go to the register with his stuffed Yoshi and plunk down his entire bank in front of the cashier. (Don't worry, we had previously counted it all and put it into an envelope labeled with how much he had to spend. We even used a 40% off coupon!) Of course, his new pal had to come and sit with us at the movie. Wreck-It Ralph was very good, much better than either Bill or I expected, and as soon as the credits started rolling Jackson leaned over and asked when he could see it again!

Last week we wrapped up our P-p Penguin Unit for Kindergarten. We had such a great two weeks learning about penguin species and living out our words to remember: I show love to everyone, especially my family. Some highlights from the unit were...

• Bill and the kids put penguin "eggs" on their feet and waddled around, pretending to be Emperor penguins, before eating gummy fish from a pretend ocean.
• Jackson and Charlotte went out to play penguins in the snow (including sliding down the slide on his belly!) and experiment with icebergs and glaciers in a tub of water.
• I read the book Penguins, Penguins Everywhere! to Jackson and made a color copy of all the penguin illustrations in the back of the book. Then Bill helped Jackson put all of them onto a large world map, showing him where in the world penguins live.
• We made a balance scale out of two paper cups and a wire coat hanger. Jackson put various objects into each side of the cup in an attempt to balance it. Then we wrote out some picture "equations" showing what was in each cup. Jackson practiced the concepts of heavy, light, equal, plus, add, more and less.

 

We finally wrapped up the chapter book, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and decided to celebrate with a movie night. The 2012 Jim Carrey movie has pretty much nothing in common with the book, other than the characters' names and the fact that Mr. Popper received a penguin. In spite of that, both of the kids thought it was hysterical. We ate homemade pizza for dinner and had black and white ice cream (vanilla with made-from-scratch Magic Shell) for dessert.

  

Last Sunday, we took the kids down to the Newport Aquarium. Jackson was simply in shock that after we crossed the bridge spanning the Ohio River, we were magically in "Tucky". Just like that...a brand new state. Ha ha! I haven't been to the Newport Aquarium since my first year of teaching waaaay back in 2001. A lot has changed since then and they have added some new areas and exhibits. Bill and I made the decision to never ever go to a museum or aquarium on a weekend again. Ever. Wowzers...that was not our smartest parenting move!

 

Even though it was crazy crowded, we were pretty happy to take advantage of the Winter Family Days promo where 2 kids get in free with each paying adult. That saved us a ton of money! This promotion is running through the end of February, so if you are looking for a fun family trip I would recommend going in the next couple weeks (but not on a Saturday or Sunday!). I would also encourage you to buy and print your tickets at home if you want to skip the outdoor ticket buying line. Another lesson learned!

 

 

Jackson and Charlotte enjoyed seeing Mighty Mike, the biggest baddest gator in the country, who is only there for a limited time. I absolutely love, love, love that picture above where he is putting his arm around her because she was a little scared. What a good big brother she has! Another highlight was the rain forest area where both kids got to sit on Bill's shoulders and feed tropical birds with cups of nectar. Jackson cracked up when one of the birds left a present on a lady's head! Ha ha! They loved the jellyfish room, seeing a real octopus, the Penguin Palooza exhibit and Jackson proudly admits his favorite part of the whole trip was the gift shop. Seriously?! Gotta love kids!

 

Have you ever been to the Newport Aquarium? What did you think? I'd love to hear any tips or tricks you have for saving money at museums and aquariums!