Our Summer Survival Plan

We have a few things working in our favor this summer. The biggest thing is the fact that my husband is off all summer. That is the light at the end of the last week of school tunnel. The kids have kicked into full on sibling rivalry mode, and it’s exhausting. So while I have dreamy images of the two of us lounging in the back yard while the kids blow bubbles and play in our splash pools, the reality is that we’ll be back to the days of a man to man defense.

Still, it feels good to go into summer with a plan, even if that plan is wear pajamas until noon! Shopping list: popsicles, things I can grill, cases of La Croix. The thing is that I don’t want to wish it away. There’s that whole 18 summers thing, which kind of stresses me out when I think about it, but mostly it has the desired effect which is to make me want to make summers memorable for my kids. The other thing is that I already have children and I know that what people say about the best laid plans is absolutely true. So what I need are things that are fun for the kids while also sanity saving for the adults.

Our actual plan goes a little like this:

Pool
We have several neighborhood pools, and one that we can walk to. (We can walk to them all, there’s only one that I’m willing to walk to.) We’ll go pretty much every day. We’re pretty low maintenance at the pool, so it’s easy to throw some towels and sunscreen into a bag and go. When everyone gets hungry we come home.

Beach
The beach is much, much more work and stresses me out. Still, we’ll go a lot. The kids love it.

Movies
I have been looking forward to the day that we could pass our summer days in a movie theater since the summer that Bub was born. We’re still a few years from making this a family affair, but Bub and I will be regulars at the theater. We’ll see a few new releases, but mostly I’m planning to take advantage of summer movie programs. (Regal has a good one – $1 movies on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fair warning – the info on the website sucks.)

Bowling
The Kids Bowl Free program is awesome, and we’ve signed Bub up for the past few summers. This year I added Bubette, too. Two free games of bowling, every day, all summer long, you just pay for shoes. You can buy a family pass for $25 to cover the grown ups in the house, if you want, but we don’t. Managing two wee bowlers is enough activity for me.

Library
I printed out the summer schedules for our three local libraries. Just about every public library offers some sort of summer program. This is more up Bubette’s alley, which is fine. See above: siblings driving each other insane.

Camps
Bub is signed up for two weeks of camp. We would be doing more, but with my husband home I don’t need the daily dose of interaction that I would if I were on my own all summer.

Disneyland
If the thought of Disneyland in the summer makes you want to weep, well me too. Except that we have our Disney plan down to a science. In the summer, the only time to go is first thing on a weekday morning. We can usually manage enough rides to keep everyone happy, and when the crowds get crazy, we bail.

Playdates. Lots and lots of playdates
I like being the house where all of the kids play. Having the playroom destroyed doesn’t stress me out, it’s just the sign of happy entertained kids. Same goes for the backyard. You want to get every single bat, ball, and bubble toy we own? Go for it. Get out the paints? Sure, it’s washable.We have splash pools and a small bounce house and we will be inviting every over to play, because above all else, I’m a homebody. Being able to be home and have happy kids is the ultimate win for me.

We also have a closet full of puzzles, legos, play doh and craft supplies – many of them unopened due to the kids’ recent birthdays. My hope is that I can ensure a few lazy mornings by setting a few things out on the kitchen table the night before, like our own mini summer camp. It’s Play-Doh day! Knock yourselves out.

Books I Read in May

The World Without You – I think I was supposed to love this book. It was a magazine recommendation, People I think, and the description made it sound like something that was supposed to be deep and meaningful. It was fine, but I didn’t relate to, or even especially like, any of the characters. They were fine, it was fine.

Another Piece of my Heart – This redeemed last month’s Blame it On Paris for me. It’s still rife with stereotypes – the gay neighbors who have an amazing eye for decorating – but it’s a nice easy beach read otherwise.

The Art of Racing in the Rain – It’s hard to tell someone that a book was written from the point of view of a dog and have them take you seriously. I loved this book, I loved this dog, and even though it wasn’t about the dog at all, this book made me want to adopt another dog right now.

City of Bones – Eh. I won’t be finishing the series. Maybe I’m over vampires and witches and otherworldly creatures? I don’t think that’s it since I’m impatiently waiting for the third book in the Discovery of Witches series. This book just didn’t do anything for me.

Dark Places – When I finished Gone Girl I was so thoroughly disgusted with all of the characters that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to read any  more Gillian Flynn. And then there were only a few people ahead of me waiting for Dark Places at the library, so I added it to my list. Gillian Flynn is great at writing books that dole out just enough new information to keep you reading. It was at about the halfway point that I was unable to put this book down because I needed to know what happened. I felt like my brain was buzzing after finishing this book, and now that I’m thinking about it again, I have so many thoughts about the people in this book. If you like murder mystery books that are a little heavy on the gore in some parts, I think this is a good choice. Just be prepared to still be thinking about these characters weeks after reading.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower – This was another book that really picked up for me at about the halfway point, but not because of any great revelation. I think it took me that long to engage with the characters. The style of the book, written all in letters from the narrator to an unknown source wasn’t what I was expecting, and I think I might have LOVED this book 15 years ago. As it stands I liked it enough to be interested in seeing the movie.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore – Such a great story, and such a nice break from the relative darkness of the past few books.

Carnival Party

This year I took advantage of what will probably be the last time I can have a joint party for the kids. I’ve always wanted to have a carnival party, and I thought this worked well for their ages.

I made the invite myself in Word. I know, I know but it cost me nothing and I printed them as photos for just a few dollars.

The original forecast was for 90 degree weather, so we bought way more drinks than we needed, and panicked that that the kids would melt into exhausted puddles in the bounce house. The weather ended up being on our side and topped out around 80, thank goodness, but it was still a million degrees in the bounce house – a fact that we only realized after everyone had left.

We rented popcorn and cotton candy machines. I really wish that cotton candy machine was still in my garage right now.

I made all of the desserts myself, and they have a very homemade look, but it was nice to do it myself. The cupcakes are supposed to look  like popcorn and sno-cones. I really wanted cupcake wrappers to complete the look, but that was one of the (many) things that fell by the wayside as the date of the party approached.

I made a small cake, because I think that it’s more fun to blow out the candles on a cake than on a cupcake. The Happy Birthday candles melted together, and I was prying them apart with a knife just before lighting them. The H and A didn’t want to come apart. Keeping it real, as always.

For the games we had a bean bag toss, clown toss (not pictured), fishing (also not pictured. What happened?) bubbles, can knockdown, bowling and an (enormous) carousel bounce house.

The can knockdown is an easy DIY. I spray painted the bottoms of the cans and then wrapped the cans in striped paper.

In addition to games we had a fortune teller, with birthday themed fortune cookies, and a kissing booth. There were 151 kisses in the jar and one of the kids guessed 149! She, of course, took them all home.

A friend of mine had a similar party and she handed out tickets for every game which the kids could then turn in for prizes. Me? I just made goody bags and called it a day.

I just really loved this party and the kids did too, which is the most important part/ Granted, at the end of the party most of the boys had piled into the playroom and were completely ignoring all of my games, but everything got played with by someone at some point. The biggest hits? The bubbles, bounce house, face painter and cotton candy. Even my dad and my husband got their faces painted.  Loved it.