We are doing everything for free. I very rarely use the school holidays to do awesome stuff. I just want to give them a chance to rediscover old toys, raid the pantry, play in the street with the neighbours ( yes, I am very lucky). And also I don't want them to expect that the holidays are for mum to entertain them!
We like bike trails, driving to a new park with different slides etc.. Swimming (which is free with our lessons at the YMCA). Make your own pizza and then go on a picnic. Decorating biscuits.
I made glue and tried to get them to do papier mâché, but that ended up with gloopy glue everywhere and me finishing it off because ds2 has limited patience.
We have rented a kids DVD from the library - free. And lots of books and even some read a long books with cd.
We made some homemade clay ( which didn't work very well) but we have some little clay things which are dry now but need painting.