Subway wants to make it fun for your kids to get outside and play this summer. Nearly 1 out of 3 children in the United States ages 2 to 19 is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Extra pounds can lead to lifelong health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. In adults, overweight and obesity contribute to these and other chronic conditions, including certain cancers. The National Institute of Health’s We Can! program (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition) focuses on reducing childhood obesity by stressing three important behaviors – improving food choices, increasing physical activity, and reducing screen time.

Subway has recently partnered with the National Institute of Health – and their We Can!™ program – to help encourage kids to ‘push away’ the screen. They’ve put together P. E. P. (Play more, Eat right, Push away the screen) Rally Kits, which are basically starter activity kits with different activities, toys and games for kids and parents to play with together outside.

Subway sent us a kit which included a $10.00 Subway gift card, a football, a jump rope, a bottle of bubbles, some sidewalk chalk, a big bouncy ball, a bag of wildflower seeds,  a frisbee catch game, and a huge container of water balloons!

Naturally, my three year old would like to plant the flower seeds, but since we don’t have a garden, she got out a plastic sandbox shovel and has been pretending to dig holes for flowers in the living room carpet. Guess I need to start a garden next year, huh?

I’m just waiting for the next time my boys have a gaggle of their friends over so I can break out the water balloons, too.

WIN IT: To encourage Table for Five readers to get their kids outside more, Subway has generously donated a P.E.P. Rally kit for me to give away. The kit will include a $10.00 Subway gift card and outside play items like sidewalk chalk, a jump rope, a “nerf” football, a frisbee, and more.

MAIN METHOD OF ENTRY: Leave a comment on this post telling me one way you are encouraging your kids to spend more time outside this summer. WARNING-if your comment just says “thanks” or “I’d like to win this” or something similar, I’m just going to DELETE IT.  Spam is not appreciated!

BONUS ENTRIES: I’ll give you one additional entry for each of the following that you do or have done, leave a separate comment for each.

• Follow me on Twitter, link is in the top right of the header. Tweet this:  Win a Subway P.E.P. rally kit from @Table4Five, Subway gift card plus outdoor play items, enter by 7/29  http://bit.ly/HZ12u
• Subscribe to my RSS feed in a reader or by email, links in top right, let me know in your comment
• Friend me on Facebook or FriendFeed, leave your username in your comment
• Mention this giveaway in a blog post or contest round-up, leave the URL in your comment

Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!