Our Summer Plans

School's out for the summer!

Now...sing it again, this time with feeling!

Now that we have that out of the way...

I always have such great intentions for fun summer activities with my kids.  I vow to keep them busy, and therefore, happy.  Or at least not at each other's throats.  But every year, our busy, fun summer just doesn't materialize.  Oh, sure, we have fun together, but there are always things left undone because we forget about them or we forget to plan for them.  And as the days go by, I realize that without intentionality, summer slips away all too quickly.

I've tried different methods of planning our summer days.  One year, it was a letter of the week, or two letters, actually, so we could get through the whole alphabet before school started up again.  One year, we just made a list of all the things we wanted to do (and then forgot to refer back to it).  One year, we put activity ideas in a jar to draw out (too unpredictable for me).  Another year, we had one sunny day jar and another rainy day jar.  I don't know why I thought that would work, when 1 jar didn't.

I decided to take a different approach this year.  I asked the boys to each come up with 3 things that they for sure want to do this summer (there I go with 3 things again...).  I made a list, too (and luckily, since I really wanted to put more than 3 things on my list, some of the boys' three things overlap with things I would like to do).  This works out well, because we have a 12 week summer this year. 

(3 boys + 1 mom) x 3 things = 12 activities

I think we'll go in age order, taking turns deciding which activity we'll do each week, and filling in the rest of the time with more spontaneous fun or, if we need it, rest.

Last summer we went to this playground

So, are you curious?  Want to know what's on our list?  Here you go:

• the new pool--the one with a zipline and a climbing wall you can jump off of into the water
• cave (ahhh, 50* F year-round)
• take a picnic lunch and bike along the river in the city, play in the fountain, and watch the barges
• indoor waterpark
• mountain biking with friends
• kayaking (perhaps in Colorado)
• trampoline place
• inflatable jumpy place
• big zoo
• hike to the waterfall
• take a train ride
• beach--the one at the man made lake, with the really cool play structure nearby

Ready or not, summer, here we come!