Every once in a while I get an idea that is super fun for one or both kids and extra super-duper easy (+ free) for me. The best of these take me five minutes to set up and then provide at least quadruple that amount of kid-free alone time. So here I am giving myself a gold star for the occasional good idea, and sharing four of them.

1. Water popsicles.
Maybe this won't last, but for the time being my kids are almost as excited by water popsicles as by real popsicles. Doesn't get much easier. Bonus: make a rule that kids must eat water popsicles outside.

2. Wading pool + mini trampoline.

It was nice and splashy (just the right amount of splash, actually) and managed to result in 25 minutes of jumping on a hot day. My presence was not required!

3. Easter egg hunt.
I don't have a photo of this one. I found 6 empty plastic eggs left over from Easter and used a sharpie to initial 3 for Halina and 3 for Luke to take outside. Okay, I had to go outside with them, but I lounged in the sun while they played for at least 30 minutes from this prompt.

4. Costume for Kit.

This took 10 minutes. Halina came home from a play date wanting a princess dress up costume for her American Girl doll, Kit, like the playdate friend had. Not only would I not buy the princess costume for Kit, but Halina conceded that Kit is not the sort of character who would even want to be a princess anyway (she's a total realist -- love Kit). I got this brainstorm and it literally took 10 minutes. Maybe less. I cut a the mask out of a file folder. Halina stuck on the jewel stickers. I stapled a rubber band to the back. And then grabbed a hole-y scarf from her dress up box and ripped off a bit for kit and the rest for Halina and sort of wrapped them each in it. Voila. Costume for Kit, plus bonus matching costume for kid. Nearly one hour of mom-free play followed.

Other fun and cheap things that were not so very easy/useful, but still pretty fun (and that I have cute pics of):

No-mirror face painting.

Yeah, this gets major.

Skate-board ramp sliding (no skate board).

Loitering around a fire station and getting offered a hat.

Hiking -- with a stick (stick very important).

Riding BART.

Waiting to ride BART.

Being kitties.

Playing at the laundromat. (And even going to a laundromat in the first place. Thrill.)

And hiding. Always hiding.