The Newport Aquarium is gearing up for Halloween with fun activities Oct 24 – Nov 1st. Join them for Ghosts of Pirate Cove. In addition to learning about all the animals that live at the aquarium, additional activities include:
- Mini pumpkin decorating
- underwater pumpkin carving
- underwater sword fights
If you don’t have an annual pass, you can still enjoy the show.
Admission at the Aquarium (at the gate or online):
- Adults: $20
- Children 2-12 $13
- Children under 2 – FREE
Buy tickets at your local Kroger store service desk:
- Adults $18
- Children 2-12 $212
- Children under 2 – FREE
Kids in costume deal (Oct 24-Nov 1st only) at the gate
- Adults $20
- Children 2-12 $5 (up to 4 kids in costume for $5 each with a full price adult)
Savings examples
- 2 adults, 2 children: $50 (reg. $66)
- 2 adults, 4 children $60 (reg. $92)
- 1 adult 2 children: $25 (reg. $33)
- 1 adult 4 children: $40 (reg. $72)
The Ohio Renaissance Festival is in it’s 20th year and offers you an opportunity to step back in time to 16th century England at a 30 acre English village near Waynesville, Ohio. This is the last weekend for the festival.
Discount tickets can be purchased online or at your neighborhood Kroger store.
Adult Tickets:
- $19.99 at the gate
- $16.99 +$1 fee online
- $16.99 at Kroger
Children (ages 5-12) Tickets:
- $9.99 at the gate
- $8.99 +$1 fee online
- $8.99 at Kroger
Children under 5 – FREE!
Parking is $2/car. Check out their website for more information on what to expect for the weekend.
Check out the hay pyramid at Station Road Farm in West Chester. During the month of October, the Farm has a hay pyramid set up next to it’s store. Young kids (up to about age eight) can climb the hay and go through tunnels (don’t worry mom, they’re made of metal culvert pipes). While you’re there check out the store and their offerings of produce, decorations and of course pumpkins.
I love a good magazine deal. Magazines are fun to get in the mail. I like to check out a few from the library to see if I like the style of the magazine before I commit to a subscription. But once I’ve found something I like, it’s off to find a decent deal on home delivery.
One of my favorite places to look for a good deal is Amazon. Yes, Amazon.com sells magazine subscriptions. AND the magazines ship free, AND can help you reach that magical $25 needed per order for free super saver shipping. Now through Halloween Amazon is having a special on 148 different magazine titles. Subscribe and you’ll get a $5, $10, or $15 promotional certificate (think gift card good on your next purchase). Here’s the whole list (fair warning: some are not family friendly titles). And here’s a few of my favorite magazines:
One child’s school newsletter tells me that September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. Really? That’s a new one for me. So, I looked it up. Sure enough. According to the American Library Association, this is the month to promote library cards.
In honor of the Library Card, here’s 5 reasons I LOVE my library cards:
- Friendly Staff — I’ve just gotta say ‘THANKS” to my local library staff. They are friendly and helpful.
- Preview CDs. Often I want to listen to new music, but I don’t know what I’ll like. I check out the selection in my local libary and try it out for a week. If I like it, the CD goes onto my Amazon wish list.
- Summer Reading Program — my kids like to read, but the summer reading program sponsored by the library gives a little more incentive to keep reading throughout the summer.
- Online Databases — every so often I want to look up something at Ancestry.com. But I don’t have a subscription. Enter my library. When in the library I have access to the library edition of Ancestry.com. This doesn’t seem to have all the databases, but enough for my research so far. My library also has access to Heritage Quest and other online databases.
- Can get cards for other libraries in the state. Did you know that if you live in the state of Ohio, you can get a library card to any public library in the state? We found this helpful when asking for out of town genealogy requests, or when traveling to another city and wanting to use the internet. Most libraries require you to have a card to use the computers.
So, thank you to my library and the great value my card gives me.
The Cincinnati Zoo has a GREAT membership promotion out there. If you aren’t members of the zoo yet, this might just tip you over the edge. When you buy a membership to the zoo now, it will last until December 31, 2010. That’s up to 14.5 months for the price of 12.
Even without this promotion I think a zoo membership is a great deal. With small kids you can go to the zoo for a few hours and then come back again on another day for few hours. Do this several times over the course of a year and the kids have seen the whole zoo, and you aren’t stressed by trying to squeeze in all the animals in one day. And as the kids grow, it’s still a fun place to go and see the animals and learn about the world around us.
So, for a modest fee (see the website link below for one that fits your family) you get:
- Free admission to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
- Free admission to the PNC Festival of Lights this year AND NEXT (remember the membership is good through New Year’s Eve, NEXT YEAR)
- discounts on gift shop and food
- discounted guest passes
- And….discounted (or maybe free) admission to other zoo’s nationwide
Full details and buy online at the Zoo’s website here. Maybe we’ll see you there sometime.
Looking for some last minute fun before summer is really over? Eastern Lanes in Middletown, Ohio is offering $1 a game bowling through August and shoe rental is only $2. This is a fun bowling alley with about 30 lanes. All lanes have computerized scoring and fun graphics for the kids. You can choose to bowl with or without bumpers.
This was a great end-of-summer activity. So glad we found Eastern Lanes and the price made it worth the trip. Located west of I-75 at the Middletown exit (exit 32, St Rt 122). But fair warning if you’re coming from the south — the exit just south of Middletown (Monroe, exit 29, OH-63) is quite congested because of the new outlet mall and construction. Use caution, grab a map and plan an alternate route if necessary.
