Got little kids hanging around the house (that you'd like to get out of the house)? Stop by a Dollar General store on your way home -- they've got some great, cheap outdoor toys for kids for $1 to $3 or so.

Most of our kids' outdoor toys from last year are MIA -- blown away, broken or run over by the car -- so I stocked up for this summer for less than $20. I got jump ropes, a bug catching kit (oh...how my 4-year-old loves this thing), a butterfly net, sidewalk chalk, squirt guns, flying discs, pom-poms and these great plastic sticks with fabric "spinners" on them (girls love them), play balls, kites, foam airplanes, etc., etc.

Lots of fun stuff.

Lots of good reasons to turn the TV off for the next three or four months.

OH...and if you have a pool...Dollar General also got lots of great swim toys -- arm floats, inflatable rings, diving sticks, masks, goggles, rafts -- and, trust me, you'll want to get this stuff now because it will be loooong gone when you actually open the pool in June.