School's out for the summer

Anyone else have a love/hate relationship with summer? No? Never mind, me neither. That's crazy.

What's not to love? The weather is great, we don't have a care or excuse in the world and no particular place to be. But sometimes too much downtime is not always a good thing. Sadly, the current generation is not nearly as good as entertaining themselves as my generation was (I blame a fast paced life, technology and gadgets, but that's a blog for another time). Downtime can lead to boredom, trouble, whining and bickering. So it's up to the entertainment director (i.e. the mom) to keep the ship sailing smoothly.

Taking the idea from a girlfriend, we made a summer "to do" list, consisting of all the fun things we'd like to accomplish this summer. Some are just simple and easily doable at home, like ride bikes or play in the sprinkler, while others are bigger outings in the area that we'd like to check out. I'm excited for some of the places we plan to go and hope the list will help stave off summer boredom and too much TV watching.

Our summer is off to a fairly decent start, save for a few mishaps this week, including Tate somersaulting down the deck stairs (we checked him on his animal sounds to make sure he's still functioning at full capacity - he's fine) and a leaking Tiki Bar / Barbie Pool that caused warped wood floors in the kitchen (fan/dehumidifiers are cranked now - fingers crossed). Ok, maybe it hasn't started out that great, but I'm optimistic it will improve...

Last week Ww rode the train (or the "T" as it's referred to here) into downtown with Dayven. He had a trade show at the convention center and we just tagged along to have lunch and then parted ways. It's our newest favorite form of transportation. There's a stop right near our house, it's never crowded, offers a scenic ride into downtown and lets you off right in the middle of the action, without the concern of traffic or parking. We love it and have many more summer outings planned with this mode of transport.

We celebrated a nice low key Father's Day together. We took the kids to breakfast, because well, who doesn't enjoy eating out with a bunch of little kids?? Actually, ours are pretty decent in restaurants and we had a nice meal. Dayven wanted to relax and watch some golf on his special day, but he wasn't without company!

Watching golf together...

Dayven's treat to himself. Can't wait to taste the delectable dishes that this thing produces! 

After months (years??) of waiting, the kids finally got the backyard playset they've been dreaming of. My parents generously bought this for the kids to enjoy and so far, they're loving it. It took the installers the better part of a day to put it all together and the kids watched with anticipation. By the time they had finished, it started pouring rain, but the kids just put on their wellies and hit it.  Now they wake up in the morning, eat breakfast and head outside. I'm envisioning years of club meetings, campouts, pirate excursions and princess tea parties taking place on/in it.

The kids and I headed to Mingo Creek Park this week. The hills around here are ridiculous and I'm trying to get the kids more comfortable on their bikes. There are really nice paved trails at this park so we took the bikes for a little spin. I ran behind them, pushing Tate in the stroller and snapping pictures. There's got to be an easier way. The park also has some cool adventure ropes section for working on strength and balance. The kids loved it.

It's Saturday so I'd better get off the computer and on to organizing the day. Never a day off for a stay at home mom, especially in the summer!