What is summer like at your house?

Every weekend we go to the river.  We go out on the boat early at ski.  During the day we swim, ride bikes or ride 4 wheelers.

At home I try to have some focus, making sure they are reading, writing and keeping up their math skills.  The best way for them to do math is playing games on the computer.

We try to go to the library once a week, pool or park and take a local field trip.

Of course they spend a lot of time playing in the backyard.  We will have a big veggie garden to take care of this year. 

First week of summer is stressful ~ VBS & Marching Band (different kids, over-lap times, 25 miles apart).  After that summer dies down so lots of relaxing - swimming hole almost everyday.  Yard work, gardening, outbuilding improvements.  Parades most weekends through mid July.  Picnics, Parks, BBQ's. visits to the festivals in surrounding towns.  Usually our mornings are spent at home (doing chores, mowing or cleaning up) then as soon as they are done, we're gone for the day.   

ETA:  I forgot the nights .....Bonfires in the yard, catching fire-flies, flashlight tag and hanging out with friends.

Well this year it will be completely up in the air since we just moved. However, this is what we know so far:

~ A bit of travel. We usually don't travel during the summer - preferring the March thru May time-frame for travel. But we haven't taken a family trip in so very long, I suspect we'll try to do something this summer.

~ Girl Scout camp for DD. She wants to go at least one week, preferrably two.
 

~ Lazy, lazy days of puttering around. I'll still get up with hubby when he leaves for work but will go back to bed then get up with DD.

~ Fishing. DD loves fishing and we'll have a pond in our backyard.

~ Water park visits. There are rural water parks in this area which we'll probably frequent.

~ A little light home remodeling - painting / decorating.

DH works longer hours during the summer & i work until 5 pm so I will pick the girls up after work & we'll have supper & play outside & work on our veggie garden.   We are getting our home ready to sell, so we'll be finishing up some projects now until they're done.  Then most weekends we do some form of camping, rodeos, fairs, picnics, etc.   Busy time at our house as well.

I have a love/hate relationship with summer. I like that dh and ds are off from school, but summer is crunch time for our surf business. Dh is in and out of the house all day, along with employees, and the schedule is different every day. So, while we do see dh more than during the school year, it is harder on the kids than when he just leaves in the morning and comes home at night. And we all get a little strung out with all the busyness.

We'll put the pool up (even though it is often foggy in the summer here) and we spend a lot of time outside, in the backyard or at the park or beach if dh is available to come with us (dd is that scary running into the waves age). We like to go on family walks after dinner, we eat earlier in the summer (and it is so nice to actually have dh home for dinner!)

Ds will have a week of morning gymnastics camp in June and a week of swim lessons, but that only takes an hour each day.  He will also do a week of ayso morning soccer camp in August. We'll do the summer reading program at the library and visit the zoo a couple times. We usually buy the kids season passes to a small amusement park about an hour away and go there a few times.

Now that dd is a little bigger, I'm going to buy pool passes for a pool about 30 minutes away in a warmer area that has a big kids pool with toys and water features, and we'll go there at least once a week. I really want more pool time for my kids this summer and this pool allows me to take the two kids by myself if we stay in the kid area.

We go out of town twice, we make the 450 mile trip to see dh's family for a week and go on a smaller family vacation. This year, we are going to Yosemite for 3 days. We do some day trips, too, mostly hiking.

The way it fell this year with the activities I signed ds up for he will usually have camps in the mornings and our afternoons free.  This is in the reverse order than I really like them, but that's just the way that it is.  I am buying a pool pass this year to our neighborhood pool, so we will be swimming a lot in the afternoons.  I'm hoping to take a trip to see our inlaws this summer, but with dh's work that might not be possible this year, but hopefully we can schedule something for the end of August.  Most of the moms here work and so their kids are in daycare so there likely won't be many kids around the neighborhood around during the day, they all come out at night  but hopefully we can get his school buddies together at least once a week either here or at their house.

We are going to have a large vegetable garden this year, and that will be a nice activity for me and ds to work on together, and get us outside.  We'll run errands in the afternoons, and have lazy mornings on the days ds doesn't have activities to go to.  Staples for us are the zoo, aviary, parks, pool, hiking (although not so much just me and ds during the summer, too hot) museums and nature centers.  As ds gets older summers are much harder to keep him away from that ipod and from the tv.

Summer nights are fun.  Cookouts, going for ice cream, etc. are fun things we like to do.

The last few years we swam at my dads pool a couple times a week well he is moving so thats not an option this year.

So this year we will go to town 2 days a week for errands and find something to do and maybe a day trip on the weekends.

They have to read practice math ect first thing in the morning.
 

I just got the main part of the summer nailed down and penciled in for DD11 adn we will work around it for anything else.

Every Mon from 3-5 Newspaper club at the Boys and girls club

Every Wed from 3-5 Torch club at the boys and girls club

Every Thurs 1-2pm tutoring from June 21-Aug 9 (BGC)

June 12-15 10-11:30 Photography camp (BGC)

June 15-20 going to Michigan with my cousin

July 2-6 Food camp 3-4:40 (BGC)

July 16-20 Art camp 10:30-noon (BGC)

July 23-26 Nature camp 8:30-11:30 (BGC)

July 30-Aug 4 church camp.

Each BGC camp is between $10 and $15. I will spend a good bit of time at the splashpad with the little kids I am sure.