What family summer activities do have planned?

[Ttulipss]

With a little baby boy due to arrive in September and our oldest starting Kindergarten this next school year, I really want to make the most of this summer for the girls without over doing it. Here's what we have planned:

Dance (Tap, Jazz and Ballet combo class) - starts tomorrow for both girls. It's great that they're close enough in age to be in the same class. Sessions are 4 weeks long. We'll see how they like it and how they do to determine if we'll continue with additional sessions.

Swimming lessons - not doing every (two-week) session available, just one or two. We haven't registered yet as I'm trying to figure out which session(s) we'll put the girls in.

Preschool story/craft time at the public library. This is Friday mornings for a half an hour for about 8 weeks. I was excited to be able to put them both in (youngest is just barely old enough) as they will both really enjoy this. As for me, I will just kick back with a book for that half hour and enjoy some library time myself. The best part about this activity is it's FREE!

Our church has great family activities, too this summer:

Summer concert and car show - once a month. There's usually hot dogs, chips, candy, sodas, popcorn etc. available for purchase. There's a bouncy house for the kids and also raffles with prizes donated by local businesses.

Family Movie night - once a month.

Vacation Bible School - evenings for one week in August. I taught the craft class last year and my girls really enjoyed being involved, too! Dh took pictures for the church and also helped out with a bunch of stuff. We're all looking forward to it this year!


Then we're taking vacation in July! Haven't nailed down the dates or exactly what we're going to do, but we're anxious for a vacation.


What's going on for your summer????

[jskarp]

Wow Suzanne you sound busy! The three boys( 8, 6, & 3) and I will probably get up and throw bathing suits on and either go to the beach or head over to my Mom's for a swim. One day a week we will go to the library to get our weekly selections, another day we will go for a bike ride or something of that nature and other than that you will find us at the beach or laying around the pool! LOL

My DH & I are planning on taking the boys camping for a week and another 3 or 4 weekends too! One weekend at the beach in Salisbury MA, one weekend on the coast of Maine, another in CT, and at least one weekend plus a week in the White Mountains of NH! Can't wait..........

Only 7 1/2 more days of school! Hoorah!
~Joy

[mama2calli]

Originally posted by jskarp
another in CT
~Joy

Yay, you're visiting our state, what part??

Not much planned with us since Pierson's due to arrive 7/3/02, we'll have his baptism (and Katie's, finally) over Labor Day weekend, along with Calli's 5th birthday party, and my aunt's coming in from TN then also!

My BIL and his family are coming over from Germany mid August...

other than that I will be recovering from my c-section and enjoying my new baby!

Kath

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[NaomiMarie]

Yeah Joy, I wanna know what part of CT too!
Naomi

[cata5]

I have always signed my kids up for day camp, swimming lessons, a couple of classes of something or other, soccer and at least one week of a lake vacation. In recent years and as my kids are getting older we have done swimming lessons for the younger ones, soccer, and the week of vacation. Two years ago we bought a camper parked it on a lake nearby and we try to go up there every other weekend or if possible during the week. The main activity is fishing followed by swimming and lying around! To complicate things my oldest has 2 jobs this summer and the next 2 are reffing soccer games which all falls on the weekend. WHY do kids have to grow up??? Enjoy your summer with your little kids...it changes fast. And don't schedule too much. My kids had the time of their lives one summer when all the neighbor kids got together day after day looking for grasshoppers in the field behind our house. FREE and fun for all!

[hannahsmom]

mine is on the young side, but i am really going to work NOT to have her signed up for soemthing every moment. (my sis - mother of 3 boys - says it takes effort to not fall into this trap.) i loved to swim as a girl, but other than that, my fondest memories are of playing w/ the neighborhood kids, cowboys and indians, ghost in the graveyard, freeze tag, seance holding. the houses in our neighborhood now are too far apart for that, which is a bummer. we'll see... anyway, i'll be recovering from c-section, too. and i'll be working from home, so my days are full. but in our free time, we'll be hanging out at the pool (in our backyard) a lot. it's all the more fun because we seem to have created a gathering place for all our friends. (but i'm NOT going to obsess about the house being clean, or having the perfect food for. i swear. i'm not.) louisville has tons of fun free stuff to do, concerts, festivals, story-telling. and i'm going blueberry picking soon. and hitting the drive-in. tending my garden w/ hannah banana. and maybe i can squeeze a few good books in there, too!

[mayfly]

We do hikes- hike hike and more hike
For the most part they are pretty easy going- but I am not in the greatest shape, so I am impressed

Up into the mountains, we have waterfalls, and lakes we go find, or fire watch towers, old logging roads. Pretty fun, except last time we packed our two youngest on our backs for 5 miles! I was a wee bit sore.

So we have been walking alot lately, trying to get their little legs prepared.

My two oldest are into sports, so they can pratically jog the whole way.

We are also going to Yellowstone So excited to see those gysers.

Other than that. lots of family movies, and a couple trips to the ocean. And every sunny summer evening ends with us at the river. Plus there is the fishing, and riding of my bils go-carts.

Oh yes, and SOCCER TOURNAMENTS- lol!

[galena]

june - camping in yosemite 1 weekend, on the coast another. kids' swim lessons in mid-june for a week.

july - family reunion (34 expected!) in so. calif.

august - trying to plan a week in hawaii (w/o kids) to celebrate our 12th anniversary if my hubby can get the time off work. otherwise we'll take the kids and visit friends in san diego over a weekend.

ongoing thruout the summer - attending baseball games, fishing, waterskiing, going to the movies whenever time permits.

[LocaChica]

What types of activities/games would you suggest for a 12 year old boy? Please, don't say to look for a 12 year old girl.

[Ttulipss]

Originally posted by jskarp
Wow Suzanne you sound busy!

It's actually not that bad, Joy, once I put it all down on the calendar. Basically 2 things a week plus play dates here and there. The church functions are once a month. VBS is just for one week during the August. Swim lessons will run 2 weeks for each session and I'll just plan 1 or 2 sessions during a slow time during the week. As for vacation, we're still not sure if we're staying local or taking off for a few days.

[3tbear]

Just go to the beach, go sailing, arts and craft shows, antique shows, out to eat at different restaurants, have friends over, and a vacation in Nova Scotia Canada. About all I can think of for now.

[katrinka99]

Originally posted by cata5
Enjoy your summer with your little kids...it changes fast. And don't schedule too much. My kids had the time of their lives one summer when all the neighbor kids got together day after day looking for grasshoppers in the field behind our house. FREE and fun for all!

I sooo agree cata!! Reading these plans with the little ones makes me wistful for the summer days when my kids and I would just laze by our pool all day or get up and discover it was a gorgeous day and we'd hop in the car and have a caravan of about 10 or 12 of our friends and head to the beach for the day. Now both of my kids work close to full time during the summer and have precious few days free. We did have a really wonderful family vacation at Disney this past spring that my daughter won in contest. It was a very unexpected blessing because once they became college students, we thought our days of family vacations were over.

[telos2000]

Remodel, remodel and remodel!

[ILoveElf]

Planning on sailing with friends along for good company.

[sblme28]

Every year for 28 years (before I was even born), my family has rented the same cabin on a lake in Maine. We own a boat and my wholoe family goes up. TONS of water sports, relaxing, cards, s'mores, and LOBSTER! It's great fun.

As far as my mom's side of the family...we usually go on a vacation too...but my step-father is going to be in the hospital for 3 weeks or so, so my mom is not going to have any vacation time after that...