All aboard the SS Summer Fun!

All aboard! Summer is waltzing up the gangplank and I need to get prepared! Every summer vacation I feel like Julie, our favorite cruise ship director, helping my little guests get the most out of their vacation. All I need is the smart blazer and the no-fuss wash and go coif and I’m all set. Oooh, and a clipboard. I’ll add that to the shopping list. And now that I don’t have a newborn baby to nurse every two hours (mind you, that was every two hours from the beginning of each feeding, so more like every hour…) we can do more and go more while my happy one year old chomps on a cracker in the baby-backpack.

I read quite a few articles on The Power of Moms website last night (an excellent resource, by the way, for all things mommy) that got me all pumped for school to get out. Summer is such a precious time with our children and I don’t want to find myself shopping for back-to-school supplies thinking about all the fun stuff we never got around to. I don’t want to over-schedule them either–then summer’s NO fun. But I want to avoid the all too familiar refrain, “I’m so bored!” followed by a mind numbing Disney channel sitcom theme song. (Don’t get me started.)

So after a family pow-wow, here’s what we’ve pulled together so far to maximize our lazy days. Each day we are in town, we must complete the following five things before lunch:

EVERDAY-

1.) Swim Team
2.) Reading (30 min)
3.) Creative Writing or drawing for the younger kids (30 min)
4.) 2 Chores (selected from the chore jar)
5.) Skill Practice (30 min) ex, piano, typing, Spanish, etc..

Then each weekday afternoon will have its own theme:

MONDAY- Laundry, Library, Park, Ice cream Day (Explore all the different parks and ice cream parlors in our area)
TUESDAY- Fieldtrip Day (Leave in morning, places like the zoo are much easier if you get there the minute the park opens), chores in the afternoon
WEDNESDAY- Arts and Crafts/Science Experiment Day–Pool in the evening
THURSDAY- Friend Day
FRIDAY- Sports Day/Hiking– Pool in the evening–Family movie

Then there’s our summer “bucket list” that we’ll check off little by little. This was very fun to write together:

Zoo
Aquarium
Camp at our favorite National Park
Make Rainbows at local mini-mart (half soft-serve, half slushy–a guilty pleasure)
Driveway Drive-In movie with projector
Our own Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival
Big Bubbles (check out this Bubble Party)
Tie Dye
Teach Andy how to use iMovie
Lemonade/Used book Stand
Plant tomatoes
Make salsa
Make jam
Big slip-n-slide down a hill
Organize craft cupboard
Teach kids how to make their own lunch and clean it up
Frame pictures for walls
Finish triathlon
Andy and Kate: Stand-up on Surfboard
Ice Skate
Bowling
Zumba for kids class at the community center
Yoga for kids
Luke and Dean: Become good swimmers
Pedicure with Kate
See the new Pixar movie “Brave”
Go to a concert in the park
Make a real angel food cake (i.e., not from a box. Now that’s a science experiment!)
Make lemon curd (from all the leftover egg yolks from the cake)
Make Play dough
Make street paint and redecorate the block
Masters of Art projects (ex, paint lying under a table like Michelangelo, mimic Seurat by painting with Q-tips…)
Camp in the backyard
Night games with Flashlights
Cousins Day
Make a bird feeder
Clean out bedrooms
Screen free 9-5
Get my camera out once a week
Daily random act of kindness
Say “no” to the car wash and “yes” to my car washers

It’s a work in progress. We may still add more to the list. But I tell you what, it’s got us chomping at the bit for that final bell to ring! All aboard who’s coming aboard!

Its enough to make me want to invest in a shuffle board.