Summer Fun

The kids and I have been on a major summer-fun binge. "Friday Fun Day" has expanded to become "Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday Fun Days" to the point that my housekeeping has become a disaster and dinner lately has been sandwiches more often than I'd like to admit. But boy are we having fun! Gotta fit it in because we only have... 58 days?! (*Gah! Ack! Runs around like chicken little in a panic!*) Here are a few fun things we have been doing:

1. Library. Jed and I love books. (Zoe does, too, but she insists on holding them herself and shouts at us if we read the words to her, so it's not quite as much fun for the rest of us.) We signed up for the summer reading program, which so far as I can tell is merely a way to initiate children into gambling at an early age. (Really? You get to enter a raffle every time? In what way is that possibly motivating to a 4 year old, let alone a nearly 2 year old? And then they get to pick for the "number of the day" which they never, ever get. Oh well. At least the kids still get excited about going and seeing the librarian mark their paper with the sponge marker.) I think it's silly, we just like going to the library anyway. Jed and I have been reading so many fun "big kid" books lately, like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Mr. Popper's Penguins. We also really loved Pippi Longstocking until he got scared by the strongman at the circus and then we had to stop.

2. Outside. Every day we try to have an hour of morning "outside time." We have a nice big kiddie pool and the sprinkler out there. Usually Zoe is in the pool, filthy and wet, within ten minutes. I get a surprising amount of gardening done in an hour. We let the chickens out and it's Jed's job to keep them out of the garden. His method usually involves shrieking for me and waving the hose madly at them, it's pretty fun to watch.

3. Walking. I have been nervous about how I will exercise with three little ones, but this week Jed has gone hog wild for bike riding! He has improved leaps and bounds lately. Yesterday we went to a big empty parking lot and he rode with some more experienced girls, which helped him catch the vision of longer distance, less-whiny riding. He rode and rode and rode for hours until I thought his little legs would fall off.
Then today a friend and I went walking up the river trail from Lock and Dam Park, which involves going up a very long, very steep hill, and Jed made it the entire way up! What a trooper! Going down the other side was a little dicey, but he made that too. I am excited for him but even more excited for me! I will still be able to get out and enjoy walking with him biking alongside after the baby comes.

4. Swimming. A couple of our friends have backyard pools and let us come swim in the afternoons on occasion. What a delight, we are so grateful it is free and fun with so many good buddies for the kids. Zoe can stand up by herself! Jed can dunk his whole body now!

5. Splash Park. We went last week with another group of friends. I was ticked because the YMCA summer camp took over the whole place (Um, don't you have your OWN private pool?) but we all still thoroughly enjoyed the cool spray and fun toys. Zoe had a "big girl" on each hand the whole time and she could not have possibly been in greater toddler-heaven. Jed kind of missed having his own sister-buddy all to himself, but he finally settled in and had a great time too. He is very, very attached to his Zoe. When he has her hand in his, he is the big kid and he can do anything. When she runs off with some other big girl, it's kind of hard for him and he gets a bit sad and shy. Sweet little boy, I love him.

6. Parade. We went to the ShrinersFest parade last Saturday, which I declare the most perfect children's parade ever. Emergency vehicles! Convertibles of every variety! Huge horses and miniature horses pulling wagons! Clowns in tiny racecars! Clowns in big painted buses! Silliness galore! Only 25 minutes long! And just one candy for each kid at the end, perfect indeed. Those Shriners really know their stuff. Jed particularly loved that EVERY BMW WAS BLUE, HIS FAVORITE COLOR. It's kind of disturbing that he can identify BMWs at age 4, but then I look at my husband and his father and it all makes sense.

7. Picnics. The weather finally cooled off a bit so we've been eating lunch, dinner, and sometimes even breakfast out on the picnic table (AKA The World's Best Picnic Table, Thank You Michael!) in our carport. Heaven!

I know I've forgetting a half dozen other fun things we've done, but you get the idea. Fun fun fun run run run morning noon and night. Better enjoy it now, kids, because when the new baby comes it's all shuttin' down.