I vowed earlier this year to give the kids a wonderful summer. It’s been one full week since school let out, plus a few days. There has been a little bike riding and some time in the new disc swing in the backyard – swings and bikes are things all good summers must have.
We went to a carnival on Friday night at the nearby fairgrounds. There were rides and junk food and games and fireworks. Kiddo’s Mom joined us for a while, which was great for Kiddo, who had a blast making her Mom scream on crazy rides.
Seth and Sprout only came for a couple of hours of kiddie rides then went home early because we didn’t think Sprout could survive until fireworks at 9:45. It turned out we may as well have let her stay because she didn’t sleep until I got home anyway. She spent the rest of the evening crying that she missed me. Methinks the kid and I spend a wee bit too much time together!
The fireworks display turned out to be really good. Kiddo and I enjoyed the heck out of it. She came home exhausted with a carnie stuffed animal and a lot of cotton candy, and collapsed into bed fully clothed. Mission accomplished! I tucked in Sprout for about the 18th time apparently, and she finally went to sleep.
Then I went and laid my overstimulated self in bed and stared at the ceiling for quite some time before I could calm down enough to sleep. Was it fun for me? Not so much. I clumped around the place in my boot to protect my ankle, spent much of the time balancing on a tiny collapsible stool I brought with me because I can’t stand for long, and got a bit too much sensory input overall. But Kiddo and Sprout had a blast and that’s what counts. I did enjoy the fireworks at least!
The following day Seth worked. I decided the kids and I would christen our new local pool membership, and made the mistake of telling the kids at 10 am that I was taking them to the pool when it opened at 1:00. They were So Excited that they insisted we all get our swimsuits on immediately. Then we sat around the house for a few hours in swimsuits. Nap time was a shambles because Sprout was too excited to sleep, and Kiddo kept interrupting our attempts to nap announcing how many minutes there were until the pool opened. I gave up on naps and we scooped up a neighbor kid Kiddo is friends with and went to the pool.
It’s a super nice facility. Clean and neat, with a pool that has a slide and diving boards, along with a super shallow end for Sprout. She can actually stand in the shallow end! She can’t at most pools. Mind you that still didn’t prevent a near drowning incident where she lost her footing and panicked, but she’s begging to go back again today so she wasn’t too traumatized.
There’s a concession stand at the pool, so the kids got their first soft serve ice cream of the season there too. $2 a cone. Can’t beat that!! Kiddo is begging to get swimming lessons so she can use the slide at the pool, so on Tuesday I’ll see if I can make some swimming lesson plans for both kids.
In my book kid summers should always include swimming and carnivals, in addition to swings and bikes, so we’re off to an acceptable start. 🙂
Up next? More swimming at the pool, a trip to the local beach soon, and perhaps a cookout there. Hopefully next weekend we’ll do some stream wading and look for crayfish, which is also a required summer activity. Camping happens in August. And I hope to squeeze in a little canoeing at some point too.
What’s on your list of required activities for kids for summer?
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