Summer is Here!

Finally, school is out, and summer is here! While I'm sad to think that my big girl is no longer a kindergartener :( , I am so excited to have all this free time with the girls to fill up with fun! My goal is to try to write about what we do each week of the summer, in brief. So, here goes...week #1:

• Officially kicked off the summer by going to the Cone Shop to get ice cream right after school got out for Megan on Tuesday (6/7).
• Instituted a daily chore chart that both girls are participating in. So far, they are very excited about it, and eager to do as many of their "chores" as they can. They earn 3 cents per chore.
• Went to the Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids last Sunday (6/5). Fun to eat, people watch, look at art, do sidewalk chalk, and watch a few dance groups perform. An annual tradition...we didn't let temps in the high 80s stop us!
• Took a "field trip" with our neighborhood playgroup to Grand Rapids Township Park on Thursday (6/9), after a stop at Coldstone Creamery for some ice cream first!
• Are enjoying a twice a month cookout with our friends and neighbors, the Tatkos.
• Started our "summer camp at home" activities. Each day I'm trying to come up with a new activity for us to do, usually during Daniel's morning nap time. This will help keep the girls busy, will minimize the morning fighting that often occurs at that time, and hopefully teach them (and me) some new things too. Each week there is a cooking activity, an art activity, a science activity, letter/reading activity, and a math activity. This past week, we baked chocolate muffins; made "blue goo" (2 parts cornstarch, 1 part water + food coloring); learned about spending, saving, and sharing money from our Sesame Street friends; worked on the girls' "School Memories" books; and dropped mint Mentos into a 2 liter of Diet Coke to watch it spray high into the air. The girls always enjoy making food with me, so that was a big hit. They really loved making the goo, and asked to do it again (funny, because when I've done this activity with them in years past, which they do not remember, they were a lot more hesitant to get their hands into the gooey mess!). They were also pretty excited about watching the Diet Coke spew into the air today. I'm enjoying coming up with activities for them to do. I hope I can keep up the pace all summer!
• Megan started swim camp today...it's every day for 45 minutes, for 10 days. Hoping she becomes more at ease about putting her face in the water when it's all said and done. Fun for Megan because her friend Adam is in her class; fun for me because my BFF Katie (Adam's mom) and I get almost an hour to hang out every day while they're swimming!
• This afternoon I took the girls strawberry picking at Krupp Farm. We took a hayride, each picked a quart of berries (well, I picked two, since Rachel pooped out after about 3 berries), got some ice cream, visited some roosters and pigs on the farm, and bought two more quarts of berries with which to make freezer jam tomorrow (I'll let you know in next week's blog how that turns out!). Thankfully Bill was home with Daniel; I don't think he would have enjoyed this outing :)

Whew....no wonder I'm pretty exhausted! But, my work is not yet done...I have two quarts of strawberries to wash, de-stem, and hull tonight. See you next week!