It’s that time of year again! Time to start thinking about cheap summer entertainment for you and your kids. With that in mind, I pulled together a list of free (or really cheap) summer movie theater promos. In case you’re not aware, theaters often have special summer promos where they show G or PG films on weekday mornings for free, or nearly so.

While we’re very happy with our Blockbuster Total Access subscription, nothing beats an occasional trip to an actual movie theater. What follows is my best attempt at compiling a list of these offers.

If your favorite theater isn’t listed, you might want to call them and ask if they offer anything like this. I tried to catch most of the major chains, but I’m sure I missed some - if so, feel free to let me know and I’ll update it. Also, some chains might not have posted details of their promotions yet, as it’s still a bit early. With that said, here we go… [more]

Raising4Boys participated in three carnivals this week. Here they are along with links to our articles that were included in each.

The Carnival of Personal Finance included “Teaching Kids About Money: Lead by Example.” Also included were “Our Allowance System: New and Improved” from fivecentnickel.com and “Hard vs. Soft Credit Checks and Your Credit Score” from creditaddict.com.

The Carnival of Family Life included “Mycoplasma, Strep, and Antibiotics, Oh My!.”

The Best of Me Symphony included “Disney Magic Caribbean Cruise Review.” Also included were “The Lazy Cheapskate’s Guide to Saving the Planet” from fivecentnickel.com and “How to Improve Your Credit Score” from creditaddict.com.

…before you became a parent:

“Get your hands out of your pants and finish your lunch.”

“Your buttcrack is not sanitary. Go wash your hands.”

“Either sit on the toilet or go to bed. This is not a game.”

“I saw you pick and eat it. Go wash your hands — I don’t want them on my computer.”

Awhile back I received a review copy of Larry Winget’s “You’re Broke Because You Want to Be,” and I finally had time to sit down and start paging through it. In case you’re not familiar with him, Winget is a personal finance author and TV personality with what can only be described as a ‘no holds barred’ personality.

Anyway, in reading through the book, I was struck by the following passage:

The only thing kids know about money is what you teach them. You set the example. Don’t expect your kids to learn how to spend their money wisely if they have watched you piss yours away on stupid stuff. Your choices will become their choices. Every dime you spend shows them how to spend their money.

I couldn’t agree with this more. While many people (ourselves included) often go to great lengths to teach their kids about money by paying them an allowance, it’s easy to forget that kids primarily learn by example. If you set a good example for your kids and they’ll learn the right lessons. If you don’t… Well… They won’t.

More ill health to write about…

As an aside, it seems like the frequency of illness goes up exponentially with the number of kids in the house.

Anyway, Son #4 is currently on antibiotics. Earlier this week he came down with what we thought was a virus. As things progressed, however, we got a bit more worried. He developed a “gagging” cough that bordered on uncontrollable at times, and was also running a consistent fever. We also learned that a little girl in his preschool class was recently hospitalized with a Mycoplasma infection that resulted in atypical (i.e., walking) pneumonia.

Given his symptoms and the this little tidbit of information, the doctor prescribed antibiotics (azithromycin in the form of a Zithromax Z-Pack). And guess what? This morning, he’s noticeably better. The cough still comes back a bit, but it’s much improved and the fever is gone.

Next up… Son #3 has been feeling a bit under the weather for the past couple of weeks. We’ve attributed much of this to his continuing recovery from his tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy. We’re confident that he doesn’t have an ear infection despite periodic ear discomfort. However, strep has been going around the elementary school, and he was starting to show signs consistent with a strep infection. So… We took him in for a throat culture. Negative. But this Mycoplasma issue has us wondering. The doctor wrote us a prescription for azithromycin (in the form of another Z-Pack) just in case, but we’ve opted against having it filled until we have a better handle on what’s going on.

Finally, Son #1 awoke this morning with a raging sore throat. Given his history with strep as well as its prevalence at school right now, we’re not taking any chances. The jury is still out on this one

That leaves Son #2. After a rough baby- and toddlerhood, when it seemed like he caught every bug on the face of the earth and had almost continual ear infections, he’s pretty much bulletproof at this point. He’s like the anti-germ. I suspect he’s resistant to pretty much everything because he’s already had it all.

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that Blockbuster Total Access is running a new promotion where you get 50% off your first month plus a free $25 Visa gift card* just for signing up. So…

You can get their 3-at-a-time movie plan for one month plus the $25 gift card in return for just $10 for the first month ($19.99 thereafter). Moreover, unlike Netflix, you can exchange your movies in their stores which gives you more bang for your buck.

Click here to apply.

*You have to remain a member for six months to qualify for the gift card

For those of you that have been following along at home…

Just over a month ago, our six year old had a tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy, in part because of chronic ear infections. Everything went smoothly on the day of his surgery, and he was home by late afternoon.

All in all, he recovered from the procedure relatively quickly. The low point was a good bit of ear pain on Day Six. While we were warned about this in advance, it was still tough to see him so uncomfortable.

Late last week, I noted that he had come down with a cold without getting an ear infection, suggesting that our problems were solved.

And then…

Over this past weekend we started to wonder. He was really snotty (in a physiological, not behavioral, sense) and we were starting to think that he might be developing an ear infection. Well… He had his one month followup with the ENT specialist on Monday, and there was nothing but good news. No ear infection, and his hearing has improved dramatically due to less fluid in the ears. Awesome.

I remember back when I was a kid. We had school pictures once a year, and they were a pretty big deal. Everyone got dressed up, our moms combed our hair extra well before we left for school, and then our pictures (no matter how goofy) ended up being displayed throughout the house.

Well, it’s still a big deal, but… It now happens twice a year and the packages have gotten much bigger and more expensive. It seems that the new expectation is for us to buy pictures during both the fall and the spring.

On top of this, our preschool takes pictures twice a year, as well. The real bummer for us this past week is that they sent the proof home and Son #4 (three years old) promptly snatched it off the table and lost it. Not a huge deal, right? Well… For whatever reason, the proof costs far more than a regular picture, and we’d be on the hook for it if we didn’t return it by today.

The real bummer of this is that the proof has a big watermark across it declaring that it’s the property of the photographer. Thus, even if it eventually turned up, it would be of no use to use.

Thankfully, under intense questioning, he had a moment of toddler clarity and told us he had slipped it under the carpet in the living room (we have a large area rug over hardwood in that room). Ah, yes, of course… We looked high and low, but not quite low enough.

It’s really too early to say for sure that our problems are gone, but… Our son came down with his first cold since having his tonsils and adenoids removed. And guess what? No ear infection. Woohoo!

Given all the troubles we’ve had in the past, including multiple sets of ear tubes, we’re hoping that we’ve finally turned the corner.

Fingers crossed…

(Or maybe I should cross my eyes.)