Carefree Summer Break

Although it is not officially summer on the calendar, we are one week into our summer break! The kids’ last day of second grade ended a week ago and we have enjoyed the beginning of our carefree summer. We celebrated the official start of summer with popsicles after school! Don’t they look like they are ready for an extended carefree summer break?

We hosted a play date with one of their friends the next morning and they all had the best time playing Legos, Star Wars and outside games. We also built our own stomp rocket launcher, which occupied the three kids (and me!) for a solid 45 minutes to an hour. I had a promo code for KiwiCrate and thought it would be a good idea to try one of their kits this summer. We still have another activity in the kit to try, but all three kids had a blast with this activity. I am definitely planning to order next month’s kit to keep us occupied.

We have hit the public library twice and have all had fun choosing new reads each week. They love to read and have to be torn away from their books to move to another activity. Both kids have finished all of the Harry Potter series and we are now looking for another series to captivate them. Actually, Miss A loves Harry Potter so much she just keeps re-reading the books over and over! They currently enjoy Nate the Great, Judy Moody and Spy 39 books. Any more summer book suggestions?

I love our public library as well because I am able to check out new releases in a first come, first serve section, which means no long waits for those super popular books! All I have to do is read the book within 7 days, which is usually not a problem. We build reading time into our day where we all “Drop Everything and Read” (DEAR). In the last few weeks, I have read two books that I could not put down: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins and Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane. Two great authors and two great stories with suspense until the final page!

I am so grateful to be at home with the kids this summer. I have worked full-time the past two summers and the day camp schedule was so hard on them. My kids need and crave down time, so we have committed to a relaxed and carefree summer this year. We have signed up for minimal camps, a little “grandparent camp” time and maybe a few trips to the beach. I also hope we can capture some great shots at the beach like last year!

Here’s to an easy, breezy slow-motion summer! Oh, except the boy woke a full 30 minutes earlier than on a school day and biked three miles beside his Dad during his morning run on the first day of break. I think I may need to have a few ideas to pull from my proverbial “hat” over the course of our carefree summer!