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.

Our best day was spent in the garden with friends. We put the tent up and they played outside all day.
Then after tea we went down to the beach and they all duh channels from the pools down the the sea for hours.
It was still warm on a Scottish beach at 8pm. Bliss!

Making "fishponds" has been DD's favourite so far.

Plastic takeaway carton
Bits of twigs and leaves
Shells
Water and the sandpit

She is spending ages arranging all this in the sandpit to make carefully constructed ponds. Although my favourite moment was when she accidentally sat in one . Fortunately she saw the funny side...

It's the never-ending games of Monopoly that I love. Probably because it reminds me of the holidays when I was a kid. I often pray for rainy days so we have an excuse to get the board games out

Going to borough gardens with a picnic from home, the children can run about, make friends and play football.

We park in a free car park and take a picnic to the beach. The children see friends from school or make new ones. No ice cream van so no pestering for extras.

We may be skint but we live in a beautiful park of the world!

*part not park!

Our best days so far were kite flying on the common and camping in the garden. We also had fun together decorating.....obviously DD not a toddler!

Free things we love - going to the beach, splashing in the sea and building sandcastles; playing in the park; bike rides; playing with water in the garden; picnics; going to the museum.

We had a lovely day, we started it visiting a rescue centre for dogs/cats/rabbits, dd loved looking and stroking the animals, although she wanted to take them all home.
We then went to the woods where dd climbed trees and ended our day with a walk down the beach with the dog, dd put a letter in a bottle into the sea and collected special shaped stones and shells.
The whole day was free and dd loved it.

We park outside and walk down a short path into the local park. We had a really fun day hunting Pokemon and pretending to camp out in a huge den we found, The kids made pretend dinner with sushi, chop sticks and seaweed soup all cooked on a really cool pretend fire pit they built! It was such a nice day out they will remember.

When the DC aren't at the local holiday scheme, we spend 1.5 hours in the park.

On the last day of term, it is traditional for pupils of our local school to congregate at the local park and have fun. I haven't been for a couple of years but this year I took my 9 year old daughter, who has just finished Year 5 up to the park. I am disabled so had to just sit and watch. My daughter was there with a bottle of water to drink (from home) and that was all. We spent 2 hours at the park and it was full of groups of parents and children. Some were playing ball games, some playing on the climbing equipment, others just playing chase and some had water guns and water bombs and there were children everywhere dodging water and shrieking with laughter when they got caught. I was sat near some mums I know and they were friendly and what struck me most was that there was so much fun and laughter and I barely saw my daughter until I needed to contact her to come home. Children of all ages were mixing together, there was no bullying that I could see and parents got a chance to catch up with one another, rather than a snatched conversation at the school gate. It was a fabulous afternoon for all.

Family time- picnics, garden play and photo memories 😍

We enjoyed a free morning exploring the new developments around Kings Cross Station - the Skip Garden, playground, lunch in a yurt and best of all playing in the water fountains -- they have two sets for younger and older children and they are great fun - if you are going that way take a towel!

Saying yes to the ice cream van. After dinner he came pootling round and I said who wants ice cream and they were thrilled!

Going to our local horse show was a big hit with our family. WE took a picnic and watched all the classes, lots of doggie ones too in the dog show and browsed the stands. Apart from the picnic all that it cost was an ice cream, we were all exhausted for the fresh air and loved watching the animals.

Walks in the woods
Picnic in the garden
Trip to the park
Visiting friends / family

Oh and looking for elephants in Sheffield -
www.herdofsheffield.com/

DD1 made cupcakes entirely on her own and decorated them - she had a whale of a time making them and sharing them with our family.

Cycling down to our local lakes - loads of giggles together.

Swinging on the rope swings at our nearest National Trust property - hysterically laughing children having pure fun. It was free as we are members :)

Walk down by the canal and the lakes, feeding the ducks and playing in the park. Free fun, tired kids at bedtime. Win win!

My daughters have spent days riding their bikes in the local park. Even when it is raining they dont stop.

We have a water play area in our local park. My children love it! They are just so happy there.

We went to a local forest and did their play trail today. Free and lots of fun as well as healthy. Was lovely to see ds and the other children there enjoy being outside and being active rather than sat indoors.

We have made a street chalk obstacle course. Here's my son and his cousin having a go. When you have no garden to speak of you have to be creative about using the street. We raced all the way up to the other end of the street.

We've just had my DDs friends round to play in the paddling pool and have a picnic. They loved it. Kids love anything with water in my experience.

Running on the field near our house "flying" a mini kite. It wouldn't fly at all unless we were running with it, but the delight on my 2.5yr olds face as it "flew" was amazing and is the highlight of my summer so far!