The Joys of Summer....?

Ahhh....the glorious days of summer.

Lazy days lounging in the sun, catching up on my reading, watching the kids dash through the sprinkler, listening to the joyous sounds of their laughter.

ERRR.....(screeching brakes)....REALITY!!

This happens every year--and each year I swear will be different.

We begin the summer with high hopes and boundless energy, with lists of things we will do "for sure" and plans to never waste a moment.

The month of June is always great--it truly is. The weather is warm and sunny, and the nights get cool enough to enjoy sitting outside. We still have the ambition to actually get out and do much of what we want. The 4th of July is always a fun time; this year we even braved sitting on the roof with all three kids, where we had a gorgeous clear shot of the downtown fireworks.

Then, somehow, almost as if on cue, the heat becomes almost intolerable to do anything but stay indoors. Finally, around 7:00, it cools off enough to head outside to once again feel like it's summer...for about a half hour. Because as soon as the sun starts to sink, the mosquitoes rise out from wherever they hide, and attack. If you want to stay out and "enjoy" the evening, copious amounts of gag-inducing bug spray must be applied.

After days indoors, that joyful laughter turns to sibling bickering; whining over who gets what and fighting over who did what, and ultimately crying over who hit what. As for my reading, the only reason I've managed to tackle the books I have is because I've resorted to staying awake until 2 a.m. to ensure that if none of my other summer dreams come true, I at least have made a dent in my bookshelf!

Water Wednesdays

 

 Water Wednesdays have proven to be one of the easiest days to organize. It doesn't take much more than a hose, a sprinkler, or a blow-up pool to keep little ones entertained for hours. Even the hottest days are enjoyable to be outside in when you add water to the mix. I think my little guy's favorite day so far, though, was the day we had a bike wash. The smile on his face above comes from the fact that he learned how to whip his sisters with a wet towel....wow, that starts young!

 

 



 

 

   My daughters' favorite day was when we met their aunt and cousins at the beach. We went early and had the beach almost entirely to ourselves! 



 

   What I find most interesting is how every time the hose is out, the girls like to also bring out their umbrellas. :)

 

 

 

This summer is speeding by so quickly. Here's to slowing it down and making it last as long as possible....enjoy!

ARTISTIC Tuesday # 1 and 2

I had planned to get these up a lot closer to the days we were actually doing these projects, but now is as good a time as ever, I guess! It's amazing how quickly that lazy summer mentality seeps into routine.

Our first Artistic Tuesday was a very simple one. On our pre-summer dollar store shopping trip, the girls found little cross-stitch kits they wanted to try out, so we got one for each of them. They came with a plastic needle and "fabric" and several colors of yarn. I believe the intention was to make the design on the cover, but the plastic fabric had no outline for it and it seemed too complicated so the girls made simple outlines instead to follow. It was a fun way to introduce them to the idea of cross-stitch, and it made them feel grown up to be "sewing," but I wouldn't recommend buying the kit at the dollar store. The yarn is too thick to work with and about halfway through, their needles looked like they came out of the "There was a crooked little man" story. That being said, it was a great $2 spent because it kept them occupied for hours!

Artistic Tuesday # 2 was also a simple project. Once again our materials came from the dollar store. We found five different colored packages of "foam dough," which is basically just sticky little balls of foam that you squish into different shapes. I found this to be just as fun of a material to work with as the kids did. My little guy loved it as well, even though he kept saying, "eeeww" as it stuck to his hands. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him working with it. :(

So far these cheap materials are proving to be quite the success around here!

MAD SCIENCE Monday # 1

For our very first themed day, I chose something simple, but that I knew would hold their attention at least for a little while. I always loved playing with GOOP as a child, so I knew the kids would too. I've also heard this called oobleck. All that you need are cornstarch, water, and food coloring if you're feeling brave.

To make this seem like more of a science experiment, I gave each of the kids their own plastic bin, a box of cornstarch and filled up a pitcher of water for them to share. This way, they could each attempt to make their own goop, testing out different mixtures to see what made the best goop.

Amazingly, this kept all of their attention (including my not-quite-two-year-old AND my 9 year old!) for at least an hour. This makes such a fun consistency; is it a solid or a liquid? They had fun trying to figure it out between bouts of mad scientist laughter and cries from my 6 year old that she is "going to take over the world!"

This little project carried them well into the afternoon as I had the girls spray off the patio (it easily rinses away), which turned into the first water fight of the season. Now it really feels like summer!

Summer Schedule

 

My year serving with AmeriCorps is basically over as I have completed all of my required hours. In order to continue my living stipend for the next month I just have to log 5 hours a week of volunteer time. So that means I am now officially home with my kids again! I took the summer semester off from college courses, so I went from working 40 hours a week and having additional homework, to being able to focus on my beautiful children and (unfortunately) housework.

So now that I am home, after used to being on a go-go-go schedule, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a plan to keep our summer going smoothly. Past summers have gone by so quickly, much of the time in front of the TV, leaving most of us feeling that we missed out on a lot of opportunities. So, for starters, we decided to extend our screen time rule to the summer with a bit of a change. During the school week, we would allow a half hour of screen time for each child, with weekends essentially being free, within reason. This summer we are allowing one half hour of computer and one half hour of television time, but they may be combined either way. We do this only Mondays through Thursdays and the rest of the weekend is free. What I love is how much time this opens up, and since it is a concrete rule, they don't even try to weasel more time out of me! Amazing....

Our summer schedule, as seemingly opposite as those two words seem to be, consists of very loose "themed" days that basically just the kids get excited about something to look forward to. My girls helped me name them; they are as follows:

Mad Science Mondays.....these started out as Magic of Science Mondays, but after our first experiment of messy goop and crazy kids, we all decided MAD was much more fitting!!

Artistic Tuesdays

Water Wednesdays

Take-a-Trip Thursdays

Free Fridays....which basically means that I just don't want to plan something for every day of the week.....kids need to be bored sometimes, right?

Before school was out for the year, I had the girls help me brainstorm and searched the internet for lots of ideas we could use and categorized them for the different days. I bought most of the materials ahead of time, much at the dollar store, so it would be ready in advance; because after all, I want this to be EASY and enjoyable for ALL of us! Now, on those days, we decide in the morning which project we feel like doing and have at it. We are halfway into our second week, and I'm still going and not even feeling sick of it, so that's a huge success for me!

I will post some of our activities very soon so you can see what we've been up to. In the meantime, here is the link to my Pinterest board that has some of the ideas we'll be getting to soon.
http://pinterest.com/traciedawnlee/this-summer/

Enjoy!

 

Cookies........to......Veggies!

Cookie season is finally over and passed, and between the kids and my husband, our cookie tally ended up at $70….that’s TWENTY boxes of cookies!! (I will not take too much blame here, except for the simple fact of storing them in my house…bad idea!) Albeit, that is $70 of delicious, only once-a-year goodness, but I think we’ve had our fill of sweets for the remainder of the year.

Thankfully, it seems that everyone’s sweet tooth is wearing out; perhaps I’ve discovered the secret to cutting back on junk….let them eat all of it until they get sick of it. (!)


Despite this great observation, I have noticed an increasing trend of junk food around our house and it is driving me CRAZY. I have made a conscious effort to not buy as much junky snacks because if it’s in the house, that is all, and I mean ALL that my four year old can think about. Last time we were at the store together, I even went out of my way to tell her that we wouldn’t be having chips and fruit snacks in the house so often and I wouldn’t be buying them this time. Of course, later that evening when my husband made a quick run to the store for a missing dinner ingredient and she tagged along, he bought her a bag of chips and a box of fruit snacks at her request…….ARRGH!

 I am extremely thrilled that we signed up for a CSA share this year! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and you pay up front for a growing season’s worth of vegetables. Once a week for twenty weeks starting in June, we will receive a big “mystery box” of veggies; that’s how we’ve been selling it to the girls anyway and so far they are very excited about what might be in there and all the new ones we’ll get to try. A great thing about the farm we chose is the strawberry social, where CSA members can come and check out the farm, see where their food comes from, and pick their own strawberries. It should be good for the kids to see that our food doesn’t just magically appear at the grocery store for us to put into our carts and then our cupboards. Living in a townhome in a city hasn’t given them too much exposure to gardening in general, so I am ecstatic about this experience. Especially since we’ll have so many vegetables we’ll HAVE to start eating better. I suppose we could really start now, but it looks like we’re waiting until June.

Farewell to Summer

Pristine water - like silk upon my skin

waves crashing - roaring in, retreating

pebbles crunch - shifting under foot

warmth of sun caressing worries away

seagulls call, lazing on the surf

calls of children's delight - heavy pockets laden with summer's finds -

waiting to be taken home and put upon the shelf.