Active discussions

Help end medical misogyny. Sign our petition.

Help end medical misogyny.
Sign our petition.

Sign the petition

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

Original poster

i want to make a memory today - suggestion??

166 replies

Mimstar · 02/04/2013 10:48

Okay I want to do something spontaneous today. I want to do something with 4 year old DD which will make lovely memories, something unusual, something we don't normally do. Something a bit crazy.

Last time I felt like this, within an hour we has jumped on a train to the lake district and we boyght fresh bread and cheese and ate them by a lake, drawing everything we could see with our coloured pencils.

Unfortunately, its too cold to sit by a lake today ans I want to make a new memory :) needs to be cheaposh, budget of 30 quid!

Suggestions gratefully received!

OP posts:
BordersMummy · 03/04/2013 23:33

Marking place. Fab thread.

SlightlyJaded · 04/04/2013 00:33

These are all brilliant - heartwarming and inspiring

One of DD's (7) best days ever was when we all went out on roller skates and let her lead the way all morning. We ended up navigating through a market and then down on a muddy river bank having to stomp so the wheels didn't sink. Exhausting but lovely innocent fun.

We have done afternoon tea as well which both dd and ds love and another good one was the day we asked my friend and her two dc to a 'the queen's tea party' and we raided the charity shop for fake fur coats, long gloves and pearls and all wore crowns.

Oh and movie night with a projector onto a sheet hanging in the garden is really magical but flipping freezing apart from about 4 nights a year

THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD - I shall definitely do some of these over the holidays

janji · 04/04/2013 00:58

We have done afternoon tea at the Ritz twice now (o e of the times at Christmas) and bith dc (6 & 9) still rave about it! Indoor picnics /camping in back garden come a close second!

TheOneWithTheHair · 04/04/2013 09:42

Brilliant thread!

When ds1 was about 3 we only had to please ourselves on my days off. He once expressed a desire for doughnuts so we jumped in the car and drove to Blackpool. We had them looking at the sea when they were still hot, went for a walk ant then had fish and chips for dinner. It was fab.

Another time he asked to go to a park he hadn't been to before. I decided Hyde Park was the place. Again we jumped into the car. We live in Manchester so it was a very long day and really expensive but worth it.

Another time we decided to visit a friend who lived on Barry Island in Cardiff. We spent time on the beach and drove home. New places always feel like a little holiday!

MakeHayNotStraw · 04/04/2013 09:52

Such lovely ideas on here! I feel quit inspired. Dd andi went to the ballet last week (the cbeebies ugly duckling, came to our home town) - hardly spontaneous though, we bought the tickets months ago! She didn't know that, though.

SerotoninCanEatTomorrow · 04/04/2013 10:43

Just marking my place - going to do lots of these!

Worriedaboutapal · 04/04/2013 12:33

If it snows again (!)

A really lovely one from a blog I read was bringing in a big boxful of snow (in a PVC container - we used one from IKEA that usually has toys in) and putting it on a big towel on the floor and playing with trucks etc in the snow...putting in toy trees. You can also paint bits of the snow with watercolour paints so we did that too!

I possibly had more fun than the kids (age 3.5 and 9 months) but they did enjoy it and it was the kind of day you couldn't go out anyway (both had colds, there was a blizzard)

FairyJen · 04/04/2013 15:23

Dp and dd once chased a rainbow all across the midlands once in the car looking for the pot of gold. She loved that she did

ATouchOfStuffing · 04/04/2013 15:58

I have a great memory of a 4 day holiday in France. Dad and I went to Loire Valley and hired bikes for every day. Long days cycling off road through fields in the sun and stumbling across mills serving home made crepes. Very peaceful. Dancer, I was about 12 when we did this and still think it was the nicest holiday I have had :)

notscarletbutgold · 04/04/2013 21:31

There are some brilliant ideas on here which I'll definitely be nicking! My DP is much better at spontaneous stuff on the whole, one of his best ideas was announcing at breakfast it was going to be a party day! Cue much excitement from children!

We nipped out and bought a pack of balloons and some party type food (prob spent £10 tops) and then came home, blew up balloons, made a pass-the-parcel with newspaper and leftover bits and bobs from old party bags etc. DS1 drew a fabulous donkey to pin the tail on. Played musical chairs, sleeping lions et al.

The kids (boys 6 and 3) absolutely LOVED it (me too!) and DS1 still talks about "our party day" some months later. Was a really fun and lovely way to spend a run-of-the-mill Sunday. Grin

stifnstav · 04/04/2013 21:50

I remember having a dressing up day when I was about 6, DSis and I wore our DM's clothes and we danced to Marvin Gaye and the Supremes.

Dancergirl · 04/04/2013 21:54

Thanks atouch

joshad · 04/04/2013 22:14

Lovely ideas here.
We've done the den making, cinema days, pirate days and knight days.
One successful theme was Happy Unbirthday day. We dressed up in the most oddest combination of clothes and painted our faces, made unbirthday hats to wear. We celebrated by having a special tea party, with the strangest sandwich combos and weird shaped cakes. They had to make up the most unusual but drinkable concoction they could. Banners were made to decorate the room too.

Go to the local charity shops and give the kids a set amount of money. They have to buy toys or objects that when they get home are used to make a 'modern' sculpture out of. Great results!

Themed dinners. So if eating Chinese, make posters, banners with chinese writing or pictures (very easy to Google these). I've found clothes that were good to wear on these occasions from charity shops again.
Particularly good on Chinese New Year. I've made with the kids' help a giant poster (using old white sheets and poster paints) of the chinese animal of that year.

My youngest son (now 9) loves indoor camping days. We make signs for the toilet block and no lighting fires after 9pm etc. We have our camping chairs and sleeping bags, stove, torches and picnic rug. Can only eat what we bring with us, thermos flask. No T.V etc, only cards, Pass the Pigs and so on. Can only go to the 'toilet block', no cheating by popping into kitchen to grab a snack or make a cup of coffee! Scatter plastic bugs about the place and we've been know to bring in some branches and flora from the garden to decorate the room.

As you can probably tell, I love doing this sort of thing. Pity the boys aren't so keen now, well the oldest isn't so much now (almost 13).

Original poster
Mimstar · 05/04/2013 08:20

Wow - not managed to get back on here for a couple of days, and I love all of these replies!! So many great ideas, I am literally sat with a notebook ready to write down these fab suggestions. Also really glad that it's inspired spontanaeity in others! Smile

Thanks for all the replies, plenty of ideas now! Would love to hear more Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
Mimstar · 05/04/2013 08:20

Wow, it's in classics!! Amazing!

OP posts:
Peniston · 05/04/2013 08:40

So inspired by this thread. Thank you Mimstar and others.

BunnyDoIt · 05/04/2013 08:55

My best buy this holiday has been a £1 pack of playing cards. I've introduced my DSs to a few simple games I remember from my childhood and they are hooked. We've spent every evening this week playing cards. I've also taught them a few patience games and they're playing those in preference to using their Nintendo DSs!

I have very happy memories of endless evenings spent in holiday cottages or caravans, playing Newmarket for halfpennies, and I hope this is the start of similar happy memories for my DSs.

cocoplops · 05/04/2013 10:08

We used to live near Wimbledon common and my Mum took us Womble hunting . We used to look for things the 'wombles' might've left for us. Sometimes it was a sweet once it was a few coins. Felt so magical! I still remember being in awe and the look on my DBros face when we found some money!!

Recent thing we've done is let the DC have sleepovers in each others bedrooms and/or beds (head to toe) - they love it!

yotty · 05/04/2013 10:33

I occasionally let my DSs, 11 and 9 years be 'king' for the day. They get to decide what we do, what we eat, where we go. They love bossing me around( I wonder where they get that from!?).
They like to cook, so one day I took them to the supermarket, let them choose what they were cooking for supper and then let them cook it. They loved it and so did we.

Squarepebbles · 05/04/2013 10:39

We did something that turned into a memory yesterday.

My dc are 9,9 and 8 and I decided to take them into the city on the bus with their own rucksacks so I had zero kiddy detritus on my person.

We spent the entire day mooching.

Had a fab time in the museum.Dd wanted to do an art activity but the boys didn't so we left dd,bought the fab 50p treasure hunt and they went round the museum finding the artefacts and solving riddles.

Best £1 ever!!! They loved leading the way,having their own water,bag to stuff coat into etc.Dd had a great time,made some superb artwork and we kept popping back.

I showed them how to work out the bus timetable and let them walk slightly ahead.Spent some time sitting in the library stocking up then bought sausage rolls for the bus home.They were fab too when I said we couldn't afford Oggy pasties and had to backtrack out of the shop!Smile

'Twas a lovely day and cost very little.

VictorTango · 05/04/2013 16:07

How much is afternoon tea at the Ritz? Do you have to be very posh to go there?

I think I would just look out of place!

VictorTango · 05/04/2013 16:15

joshad - I want to do an Unbirthday Party! I was thinking of doing it August as its all winter birthdays in this house. I'm going to steal some your ideas, thank you Smile

Blatherskite · 05/04/2013 17:05

I've been planning my an unbirthday party for months! DD's birthday is in December and I'm just waiting until she's old enough to be able to convince her that moving her party by 6 months would be a good idea :)

VictorTango · 05/04/2013 18:23

Ooh blathers I would love to steal your ideas be inspired by you! Might have to do that on another thread rather than hijack this one though!

Blatherskite · 05/04/2013 18:33

You start one and I'm there Victor Grin