Summer Fun Lists & Charts

{{aka - the post about how to keep my sanity this summer!}}

 

every year for the last several summers we have created a summer fun list - just a simple way to check off all the fun things we HOPE to do throughout the summer.

 

now just to be clear, I have NO intentions of following any kind of strict schedule for the summer. it's a time to sleep late, be spontaneous and just relax... but I also feel like the whole house functions just a little bit better if we do have some semblance of order, know what I mean?

 

so here are the charts/lists we made for Summer 2013

 

first up - Bob and I are planning to run our first 10k at the end of August, being our first time I want to be sure to train well enough for it and I'll be honest, I usually slack on exercise in the summer months. so this is my chart to track my miles that I've run leading up to the race ...

 

 

next up is our official SUMMER FUN list ...

 

I am loving this cute washi tape that says 'like it, love it, etc'

 

and since we're lazier in the summer and busy heading off to the beach and other fun places, we tend to neglect our house more ... which is fine, but at some point it must get cleaned or we'll be living like pigs.

so instead of everyone having a chore chart we go by this very basic and loose schedule - each day has a specific chore we all help with - bathrooms twice per week helps keep them from getting nasty, same with vacuuming. then we have the dailies - simple things that help keep the whole house running more smoothly - the basic rule is to pick up after yourself. if everyone chips in with these few basic things every day it only takes a few minutes each day and we never feel like we're spending a whole bunch of time cleaning. I like that!

 

a poster to keep track of books we've read ... as you can see we just put it up. =)

 

and a boredom buster poster too ... because there's nothing I hate more than kids saying they're bored in the summertime ... so if they ask me the age old question of 'what should we do?!?!' I direct them to the poster to pick something ... {stuff on the left is mostly outdoor, stuff on the right mostly indoor}

 

and here they all are ...

I feel like this is the summer command center! hahaha

oh yeah, one more ... dirty clothes somehow always seem to get dumped in the hallway by the basement door and it drives me cRaZy so I put up this sign - and so far, it's been going much better!

 

and that's it! just keeping things loose and fun with just the perfect dose of structure to keep us all sane ... that's my kind of summer!

 

how about you? do you keep a regular schedule during the summer? do you have a daily plan or just go with the flow?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Week One

 

 Ahhhh summer is finally here ... we've had some ups and downs this week ... it's definitely been an adjustment for us all to be home together every day again. I think we're finally getting into a groove now that we've established some basic rules. My husband came home one day to find me in tears because my kids had been fighting/arguing so much and driving me crazy. I did not want to spend our summer like this! So he talked with them and we all worked some things out and so far it's been smoother since then. So now that I've been honest and you know that life isn't all shiny and happy here are some pictures from the past week or so ... ;)

 

 

 

 

The girls have begun frog hunting again - this was their first catch - they made him a cool

habitat and kept him for a couple hours before releasing him again.

 

 

For Father's day we went out to dinner at one of my favorite places - yummy, yummy Mexican food!

The day before school got out I had a minor outpatient surgery - I pretty much camped out in front of the TV with Netflix movies for the day ... kinda rare for this busy Mama to just lay around all day!

 

My daughter wrote the sweetest card for her teacher!

 

As soon as school was out we were in full summer gear - hangin' by the pool, eating

watermelon and drinkin' iced tea ... yes, summer has officially arrived!

 

And personally I have been enjoying my quiet times every day out on the patio ...

so nice to take my time and not rush ...

 

Our countdown was completely filled now that school was out! Time to change the chalkboard wall!

 

We celebrated school being out with yummy treats at Rita's!

 

While the girls were swimming I started working on our Summer Fun List!

I'll share it with you in my next post!

 

Yum Yum Yum

 

Blueberry faces and wet pool hair - love it!

 

My toe nails match the pool water!

 

Friday night we enjoyed a concert in the park - so fun and relaxing,

this is the kind of stuff I love about summer!

 

Saturday night we watched Hope play her last soccer game of the season. So proud of her!

 

 

 

 

A sure sign of summer - colorful, wet towels hanging on the fence.

 

Sunday we had family visiting and I made an angel food cake, oh so yummy!

 

With fruit salad and cool whip of course!

 

Joy wore matching dresses with her American Girl Doll to church on Sunday.

 

Oh Gracie, that does not look like a comfortable pillow for your head!

 

When Bob got out of work the other night we headed to the beach for a couple hours.

Such a nice time of night to enjoy the beach after all the crowds had gone home.

 

 

We went to SIX FLAGS with our friends! It was BLAZING hot so the kids

enjoyed the waterpark for most of the day ...

 

And we even let them choose where to have dinner on the way home ...

 

We had our first friend day - swimming, lunch and friends - yay!

 

And we went to the car races one night ... only saw a bit before getting

rained out but it was fun and we'll be going back again.

 

How is your summer going so far?

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Summer Fun Update {2012}

Back in June I introduced our Summer Fun list for 2012. This is what it looked like back then …

 

 

And this is what it looks like NOW!!! =)

I realize some of the things listed will mean absolutely nothing to most of you but this just shows me what an INCREDIBLE summer we’ve had!!

* We went to 2 different amusement parks {free both times!} and 2 different water parks.

* We went to either a beach or out on the boat to the beach about 17 times!

* We went out for ice cream or similar treats about 10 times!

* We went to New Hampshire for a few days as a family and my daughter attended camp in NH for a week, we spent 3 days in New Jersey for a Hot Air Balloon fest, we went to Rhode Island 4 times {3 for the beach and 1 for Newport}.

* The girls had about 9-10 sleepovers with friends! {{This was where our motto ‘A Bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it’  REALLY came into play … because overall we all had GREAT attitudes this summer but when they were on lack of sleep mode from havign sleepoevers the grumpies would sometimes sneak in!}}

* We saw fireworks at least 6 times and had campfires at least 7 …

* We tubed down rivers and swam in the pool at night with glow sticks and had too many BBQ’s with friends to even count!

 

There were a few things we didn’t get a chance to do … but overall we had the best summer of our lives and couldn’t have asked for anything more! 

August

What a month it’s been! We have been on the go almost constantly this month … and we didn’t even go anywhere! Just thought I’d highlight a few of the really fun moments we’ve had this month ….

Beach Night – we went to one of our fave beaches in Rhode Island one night, it’s nice because they have BIG waves there and that night was no exception. The surf report said 1-2 ft waves but I swear we saw some as big as 6-7 feet! We went with another couple and their kids and got there just after 4pm so we wouldn’t have to pay the $20 admission. We brought grinders for dinner and had a BLAST! The kids pretty much surfed the waves for 4 hours straight, the Moms and Dads did a little wave riding but after getting a bunch of salt water up our noses we called it quits and just enjoyed the beach. We saw THE MOST glorious sunset on the beach that night and went home tired, sandy, salty and super happy. It will be remembered as one of my fave nights of the whole summer!

VBS - We had a week of VBS at our church. I helped with crafts and both girls had a wonderful week. I think there were about 24 kids who came to know Christ which is awesome!

The Olympics – one of my fave memories this summer will also be coming home each evening and watching the Olympics with my family. We stayed up WAY too late pretty much every single night but had a great time watching the events and cheering for the athletes we loved. We also ended up doing LOTS of races against each other in the pool! Nothing like the Olympics to inspire a little friendly competition!

Friend time – we have spent lots of days playing with friends. We’ve been to the beach together, spent lots of days swimming, had BBQ’s and campfires and lots of laughs!

Meteor Shower – the night of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics I read on FB that there was supposed to be a Meteor shower … we headed out back to our deck to see if we could see anything and were SUPER surprised. We ended up bringing out a blanket and laying together on the pool deck and watched the sky for HOURS. We stayed up till around 1am and saw SO many Meteors! It was such a neat experience and will be another one of my fave summer memories from this year.

Hope’s Birthday Party – Her bday isn’t until September, but she wanted to have a party before school started and while it was still summer time. So we had NINE girls here for an overnight party! They started the night with swimming and Sno Cones {we borrowed a friend’s sno cone machine} … then we played some games, had pizza and soda and swam some more. They did Cannonball contests and chicken fights in the pool. We did presents and cake with ice cream. She wanted a ‘One Direction’ theme so we made a British flag cake. She helped me with the decorating of it and it came out great!

Later in the evening they did a night swim with lights on the deck and glow sticks in the pool. Around 10pm they all came in and dried off and settled in for a movie. We set them up downstairs in our finished basement and they watched ‘Mirror Mirror’. They had popcorn and waters and when the movie was over around midnight THEY GOT THEIR SECOND WIND! I think they stayed up till around 3am!

The next morning I had to wake them up! I made pancakes and served fresh strawberries for breakfast before they all started getting picked up. All in all it was a GREAT night and they had SO much fun. What a great group of girls … they all got along so well and are such sweet girls!

Rita’s – one of our fave ‘treats’ this summer was Rita’s … they have delicious Italian Ice in the neatest flavors like Swedish Fish and Mango … and their Custard is SO rich and creamy. My fave thing to get there is called ‘Gelati’ and it’s a combo of both custard and Italian ice …. sooooooo good! I will miss going here when summer is over!

Soccer – it’s soccer season again! Hope started with her first practice this past week and we are excited, we LOVE soccer season!

Hair cuts – all 3 of us girls got hair cuts in the past couple weeks. Not sure why I didn’t get pics of the girls though! Hope just got a little taken off, Joy got it cut to about chin length and I got mine CHOPPED and highlighted a little. I haven’t done anything to my hair since January and it was QUITE nasty so it feels SO good to have some style again!

Dinner with our neighbors – we are the world’s WORST neighbors. We had new neighbors move in about a year and a half ago and we just now had them over for dinner. They came over Friday night and we had such a nice time getting to know them! They are quite a bit younger than us and have a little baby girl who’s 8 mos old. But we actually had several things in common with them and had a great time seeing how cute their little baby was! I hope to develop a good friendship with them over the years.

Date Night – the girls went to a bday party last night so hubby and I went on a date. It’s been a long time since we did anything without kids so it was nice. We got the chance to talk over some of our plans for the fall and had a really yummy dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.

And that’s about all for now … we have ONE last full week until school starts so we are planning to RELAX and keep things simple this week. The girls already have everything they need for school so we don't have to do any running around. I hope to use the pool and soak up some sun and just wind down. We will also be getting back on a better bedtime/ morning time schedule starting this week. So, I’m off for now … I’m sure I’ll be checking in with ‘first day of school’ stuff soon!