Happy first week of summer break! We survived, did you?
Recently I have been reading a lot of posts about summer break and things to do and not to do. It seems to be one extreme or another. You either fall into the over planning or not planning at all. I do both. I want my kids to have a fun childhood and carefree days but I am also super cautious and like to know what is going on at all times. Why is that so hard? Why can’t I have days where kids choose their own activities or nothing at all but also days where we plan everything from dusk til dawn?! Why is it so hard to be a parent who likes her peace and quiet but also enjoys planned play dates, park visits, nature walks?
If you are like me or just want to know what we do, keep reading.
I am by no means telling you how to parent your kids. How to live your life. How to manager your time. But I am telling you that we all deserve to unwind from the hustle and bustle. To take a break from busy school/ work schedules and activities. To embrace a summer of sleeping in, pillow fights, bike rides, ice cream trucks, movies and video games. To plan kid free days and an occasional pool day by ourselves. We can and should enjoy our summer too! Stop worrying about keeping everyone busy or keeping up with the so-called standards. Every moment has its place. Everything passes so quickly. Enjoy the beauty and comfort of a carefree summer. Soak it all up because it will not last forever.
How do I manage this and two wild kids during the summer days? I don’t.
Let me give you a synopsis of our first week of summer break and a forecast of what I hope most of our summer days will look like.
- Saturday – I planned a night out with my husband. Yup first weekend of summer break was for us. I spent the afternoon at the salon and hanging out with my sister. But the evening was reserved for a date with my hubby. Kids loved having a babysitter, playing games and we enjoyed some much needed uninterrupted time off.
- Sunday – another planned adventure was to take my sister to our new favorite pizza place in Lake Geneva, Oakfire and enjoy a nice spring day by the lake. What we did not plan and stumbled upon was a scenic pathway along the shore. We enjoyed an unexpected but beautiful walk. A few miles of amazing views, some of the most beautiful homes sites, peaceful and fragrant gardens and family time.
- Monday – no plans but we slept in, hung out in pajamas pretty much all morning. I let the kids do whatever their little hearts desired. TV and electronics for hours. Inside and outside play. They put together a new toy that was sitting around for weeks. They played and bickered all day but hey, it gave me a chance to catch up. Some house work, social media, a chapter or two of my book, baking and some delicious meals later and everyone survived. Ahh – it was wonderful.
- Tuesday – no plans. But after a leisurely morning, I decided to surprise Adriana with a play date. A quick text to her friends mom and she was coming over. We ran a quick errand, came back and kids played for hours. They made up their own games with minimal electronics time. Played inside, outside, talked, colored, danced and more. All while I worked, cooked and relaxed myself. In the evening we practiced a little tennis with Adriana because she wanted to try lessons this summer. But finished it off with a movie night and all was well in the world.
- Wednesday – no plans again. But because I woke up with a migraine, the kids helped out with beds and breakfast. Once again, the rest of the morning they created their own games, colored, read books, played on their tablets and argued like brothers and sisters do. They watched a movie and then we spontaneously decided to leave the house. We stopped by 2 parks in the neighborhood and spent a couple of hours outdoors. Good day.
- Thursday – we had a planned park play date and spent a couple of hours catching up. One fun thing that occupied them for almost an hour was going on an adventure hunt. I purchased these Adventure sheets from Target’s SPOT section; a list of things the kids had to look for while out and about. They worked together and in groups and tried to check of as many items as they could find. Here is a photo of the one I found, but I am sure you can recreate and print more at home too. These can be fun for road trips, airplane rides and so forth. The rest of the day we spent shopping, making milkshakes, some fun in the sprinkler and good old backyard play time.
- Friday – rainy day and no plans yet again. But somehow we managed to bake cookies, clean the house, got manicures and mama wrote a blog post 😊! Kids watched a movie, read books, played games and did some father’s day crafts. Happy Friday ❤
- Weekend – we have family coming over for dinner and a birthday party planned. But you never know when we might throw in a hike or backyard BBQ. 😉
While I do have a list of things we would like to do or see this summer, I am by no means forcing it. There will be pool days, play dates, library visits, nature centers, amusement parks, festivals and more. We will just take it one day at a time and keep it fun!
Hope you have a stress free summer as well.
x, Dijana