What time is it?

SUMMERTIME! I couldn't resist answering DD1's question that way this afternoon. (I do apologize to any High School Musical knowing people who will have that song stuck in their head the rest of the day....) I always have big plans, ideas for activities, learning experiences, fun outings.... We purposely have not scheduled anything in the summer besides swim lessons and softball games, all finished by the fourth of July. Downtime and fun time, that's the goal for the summer. The routine book will be out every morning, just to keep things in shape and make sure we can make it out of the house before 11 am. An early summer tradition has been to have each child make a summer list. A list all their own filled with activities they want to do during the summer. The list is not a guarantee of anything, only a guide and a way to look back in Mid August and see, yes, we DID do things things this summer. So far there is swim, camp out with friends, bike rides, State Fair, ice skating, fishing, and birthday parties (we have a lot of Summer birthdays in our family). Looks good to me....a few things I have on my list include reading programs, regular family time in the garden to keep the weeds under control, shrinky dinks, reading to the girls from a book picked out together (maybe the little house books), teaching each older child 2-3 recipes they can master and make without (much) help and allowing some guest blogging if they are so inclined. The first 1/2 day is over, a summertime to go.

Freedom

I had mentioned in the previous post about ds being patient in his stroller (at the state fair). Not wanting that to end and knowing we were dangerously close, I took him for a walk to find an appropriate place for a rock/cigarette butt/paper eating toddler to burn some energy. The first place we came upon was the gentleman selling hog panels (I only know what these are from stories Paperman has from his days on the farm), livestock waterers and other farm equipment. The salesman looked friendly enough, the grass was semi green and clean so I let ds out of the stroller. He was so happy to be able to move on his own he plopped right down, took his shoes off, and even laid down in the nice shady spot. Thank you Mr. Hog Panel selling man.