Let Cadbury know your shared joyful summer moments which cost nothing - £265 voucher and Merlin ticket to be won! NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

The school summer holidays are a great time to share lots of wonderful moments with your children, and though the cost of exciting days out can really add up, they’re not the only way to have fun.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons would like you to share the joyful summer moments you’ve shared with your children which cost nothing.

This could be a water fight in the garden on a hot summer day, a trip to a local museum that you both really enjoyed or an impromptu picnic in the park. Have you found creative ways to have fun without the price tag? Whatever your joyful summer moments that cost nothing, share them with Cadbury below.

All those who post a comment below will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £265 Love2Shop voucher and a second winner will win a Merlin family ticket worth up to £200.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Additional information for Merlin prize: the winner will need to advise on the attraction they would like to visit and they will be sent a set of open dated tickets to use in 2016. The exception is Madame Tussauds in London where it gets very busy. Therefore, the winner will need to advise on three potential dates for their visit and Merlin will book them in in advance for one of those dates.

On the first day of the holidays, I gave 6yo DD the choice to do whatever she wanted.
She wanted to go on the bus, to the library, and then to the beach sandpit in the town centre.

So that's what we did and we had a wonderful day. We came home and did some gardening together and found lots of bugs which we looked at with a magnifying glass.
The whole day cost £1.20 for the bus.
I'd been working all the hours in previous months and I'd neglected DD somewhat so the holidays are a chance for us to reconnect, recharge our batteries and chill out. Share funny stories and jokes. Stuff like that costs nothing and means so much.

We are doing various things in the water tray, ice, water beads, shaving foam etc. Mostly stuff we already have at home, it's been so much fun. Jelly has been winner so far!

Can't really beat making sandcastles on the beach and spending the afternoon rock pooling. Costs nothing. you're out in the open air and the kids were so excited to catch a teeny tiny fish and a hermit crab.

We decided one day to go for a picnic followed by a long walk in the countryside, and spent hours looking at and taking pictures of all the different trees, plants and flowers! Here is a picture of the sunset through the trees that we took from on top of a hill, some of the pretty flowers, and a cool wood carving!

We make shortbread together one evening :) It was lovely, free and (most importantly!) delicious.

We had some caterpillars that we were able to observe in the garden from growing fat on leaves to chrysalis stage and now we see lots of butterflies in the garden that we link to think came from our little caterpillars!

My favourite joyful summer moment that we enjoyed together so far has been camping in the back garden! We invited round some friends from the neighbourhood, put up tents, played lots of fun games in the garden and made some "survival snacks" made out of things we had in the cupboard, such as s'mores from some chocolate, digestive biscuits and marshmallows.

We are so lucky we live near the beach and spend a lot of time there.

DD and her friends go in the water pretty much all day, body boarding and swimming. We take a picnic and stay until the sun drops below the cliffs and then head home for showers and food.

It costs us nothing except a picnic and petrol. We've had many a happy day just sitting watching the kids playing in the water.

We like the sculpture trails than temporarily visit cities - Norwich has some good ones (has had elephant, dragon and gorilla). BFG dream jars in London at the minute.

My toddler is Evers happy playing in the paddling pool. We keep hold of containers and cartons that week for her to play with in there. For rainy days we've made a box den which I'll get her to draw on inside with crayons next rainy day.

My DD and friends have been playing all day in the garden. They've built a den, had a picnic, played on the trampoline, made "perfume" and are currently playing in the paddling pool/throwing cups of water at each other. They are having a ball. It hasn't cost us a penny and it's not even a particularly warm day. When they get cold they're going to make ice cream and do some baking. Happy days.

Water play in the garden, lovely walks with the dog in the countryside, picnics out, make & do, we do allsorts of things that cost very little :)

Making dens over the washing line and smuggling in ice creams from the freezer. Also setting up a teddy bears picnic with all her dolls and teddies and putting her a lovely tea party out. Both cost nothing but involve lovely imaginative play.

Going on a 'treasure hunt' ended up on a bench alongside the river on a lovely sunny day playing with bubbles and both DSs laughing fit to burst, just one of those unexpected glorious moments you hope to never forget
Cost 20p for the bubbles

I tried to say "Yes" for a whole day. Or, at least, not say "No". I did not tell my dc what I was doing!

Magical.

Took some creative thinking, and I really had to zip my lips and sit on my hands at times, but they had a fabulous day. And the mess was...manageable.

Tearing up and down the garden running through the sprinkler. Much giggling and shrieking was the order of the afternoon - and mummy and daddy got soaked too!

We went to a nearby paddling pool, its really popular and DC had a great time. Lots of running about and splashing and I was able to have a seat at the side just watching. Afterwards, DC played at the park. Was a lovely day and they all slept well at night :)

One of my favourite free things to do in London with smaller DC is to look up the Tower Bridge lift times and go along to watch the bridge lift and the ship go underneath it. Always has that wow factor. Then if it's a sunny day you can go off to More London for them to splash in the fountains and perhaps eat a picnic while they dry off. Gawp at HMS Belfast on the way home - it costs a fair amount to go in but it's an impressive sight from the outside.

Playing tennis or cricket with water balloons ! They particularly love it if mum or dad got soaked !

Watching my 3 year old daughter push her baby sister on the swing. They both giggle so much, it's adorable to watch.

Playing in the stream - the woodland which is a short walk from my house has a lovely stream that goes through it, and one area is particularly suited to paddling, making dams out of stones, throwing sticks off the little bridge and so on. I sit under the tree and read while ds and the dogs make full use of it. Bliss.

We sent a day gardening together, planting new flowers in the pots, learning the different names and watering them. There were plenty of ladybirds and bees about though, and DC soon got distracted chasing some butterflies! It's the little things :)

We set the paddling pool up with the slide going into it and a hosepipe at the top of the slide so that DD had her own water slide. She loved it although we did have to keep putting hot water in the pool as she was shivering.

So far dd (5yo) has declared her favourite bit of the holidays to be going to the beach. She found it hilarious to chase me around the beach trying to put sea weed on my feet!
I do not like sea weed and was genuinely squealing at the sea weed touching me! 😳 Dd laughed harder and harder and in the end caught me and piled all the sea weed she could find onto my toes!
Her hysterical giggles were an excellent distraction from the slimy grossness piling up around me! 😂

We're really lucky to have great museums nearby - the dc have really enjoyed the Science Museum, Tate Modern and British Museum this summer. Free travel for kids means it doesn't cost anything to get there, and we pack up a picnic lunch so that's just money I'd spend on food anyway. There's been so much to see that they'll spend the whole day exploring the exhibits and doing activities, and come home absolutely exhausted at closing time