Endless Summer Fun: With the Kids
Set fireworks
Hey, kids, let’s put on a show! Celebration Fireworks Inc.
will arrange a computerized Fourth of July display that will have all your neighbors agog (and their dogs a-howling), starting from $3,800 — plus a small charge for a permit and the required local fire company standby. Cost: $$$. 610-285-4242, celfire.com
Prefer to do it yourself? Order the Independence City Assortment
for $93.59, and a Phoenix Tail Howl Fountain for $57.49
(because how can you not?), from Fireworks R Us in Douglassville. Cost: $$.
888-811-BOOM (hah!), fireworksrus.com
Can’t really go all out just now? No worries. The kids will
have just as good a time with a box of sparklers (three for a dollar).
Mom, look — I’m writing my name! Cost: $.
Have a play day
Take the whole gang to the fab new redo of the Please Touch Museum in Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park, for $15 per head. Ride the restored carousel for $3 more. Cost:$$$. 4231 Avenue of the Republic, 215-581-3181, pleasetouchmuseum.org
Or head to Chestnut Hill’s Little Treehouse Play Café, where you and your girlfriends can linger over cups of tea and sandwiches while the kids explore a big, bright play space full of toys. During peak hours (mornings and noon), you’re free, but you pay $7.50 for your kid, with siblings half-price. Cost: $$. 10 West Gravers Lane, 215-247-3637, treehouseplaycafe.com
Get your latte to go, and sip it on the drive to the Smith Playground, whose swings, giant wooden slide, jungle gyms and teeter-totters are all yours, free of charge. Tuesdays are Family Days, with a vibe of less-chaotic-than-usual fun. And don’t miss the annual celebration of the playground’s birthday on July 25th, with party games and cake. Cost: $. Reservoir Drive, East Fairmount Park, 215-765-4325, smithplayhouse.org
Roll on
Segways all around! Segway of Philadelphia will sell you a quartet of on-and-off-road X2s (max speed 12.5 mph) for just $23,400. Cost: $$$. 242 Easton Road, Horsham, 267-282-5774, emobile-pa.com
Outfit the whole family in in-line skates from Dick’s Sporting Goods. Mom and Dad will pay $70 to $400 apiece, and the kids $20 to $150. Cost: $$. Various locations; dickssportinggoods.com
With Millennium Skate World’s Sunday-night Family Package, you pay just $29.99 for admission for four, four skate rentals, four slices of pizza and four sodas. Cheap thrills! Cost: $. 1900 Carman Street, Camden, 856-757-9460, millenniumskateworld.com
Go hunting
Play laser tag at the ne plus ultra Ultrazone in Bensalem.
Saturdays are “Kidzone” days, with ages six through 12 and their parents paying just $5 a game from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost: $$. 4201 Neshaminy Boulevard,
Bensalem, 215-396-9936, ultrazonebensalem.com
Take in a movie
Shankweiler’s, the region’s last remaining drive-in movie theater — open continuously since 1934! — is still showing movies (and hosting hot makeout sessions) at $7.50 for grown-ups, $3.50 for 12-and-unders, and free for two and under. Cost: $$. 4540 Shankweiler Road, Orefield, 610-481-0800, shankweilers.com
