What I Did This Summer

Tomorrow is the first day of school in our school district! At the beginning of this week I was feeling quite sad for my girl that she only had 3 days left of summer vacation. I was having pangs of regret for letting the summer just slip by without feeling like we did that much. So I started to think about what we did and I decided that I would do my own blog version of our annual “What We Did This Summer” poster board! And as happens with my girl every time we do one of these together, I was surprised at how much we did do this summer! These are just the things that we either did as a family or that the girls did this summer:

- Took a trip to New Hampshire to visit family
- Took my eldest daughter to play miniature golf (the little one fell asleep in the car – we took her back to the house!)
- Trip to the beach where my girl and I built her first sand castle
- Took a trip to New York City (ok, technically this was during her last week of school, but still it was at the end of June!) – the girls got to ride in their first taxi and visit FAO Schwartz!
- Took the girls to see “Mamma Mia!” on Broadway
- Went to visit family in Long Island and attended our niece’s graduation
- My eldest went to Girl Scout Day Camp for a week (which she loved!)
- She also stayed over at Girl Scout Camp for one night (which she loved!)
- She took a one-week writing class at Writers and Books (which she loved!)
- Both girls went to the yacht club for two weeks of swimming lessons (thanks, Gramby!)
- The four of us went to see Toy Story 3 at the movie theater
- Went up to the Town Hall for our town’s annual 4th of July festival
- Had a 4th of July gathering at our house and watched the fireworks from our backyard
- Swam in the pool
- Tended our new garden
- Played on the “new to us” swing set
- I took the girls to my friend Christine’s house for our annual “Laura Ingalls Wilder - Preparation Day” where we churned butter, harvested veggies, and made biscuits and Johnny cakes for Laura Ingalls Wilder Day
- Went to our 3rd Annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Day where my girl and I met Dean Butler (Almanzo on the tv series) and biographer William Anderson – a BIG event for my girl who is an aspiring author herself!
- School clothes shopping
- Went to the music store to lease a clarinet for my girl to take lessons in school
- Took the girls to the library
- Took the girls to a charity hockey game for a friend of my husband’s, where we got to see Jim Craig and Mike Eruzione from the 1980 US Olympic hockey team (ok, so the girls were probably as excited as my husband was to see Dean Butler from “Little House”…)
- COUNTLESS phone calls between my girl and her cousin Julie and two of her friends from school (seriously thinking about Mr. Brady’s pay phone idea from “The Brady Bunch” – remember that episode?)
- Several movie nights at home – I believe we rented “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Alice in Wonderland” 3 times each this summer!! (Those will be on the Christmas wish list…)
- Inadvertently kicked off another wave of “Beatlemania” in our house – our 9-year-old is now their newest, biggest fan!
- Painted and redecorated our 9-year-old’s bedroom to accommodate her maturing self – no more pink, no more Barbies – she even has some Beatles’ albums on the wall (thanks to her dad!)
- Did some rearranging in the house, reclaimed the living room for the adults and made the family room more of a play room including the train table and the Barbie house
- BBQ pool parties with friends and their families
- Had a “Princess & the Frog” themed birthday party for my little 4-year-old
- Play dates with friends – at our house and theirs
- Our eldest spent a fun-filled afternoon at Bounce-It-Out with her best friend and her family, which coincided with the fun-filled afternoon that my little one and I spent –
- Potty training!! What a rock star my girl is – and what a wonderful thing to be done with diapers and pull-ups!!

That’s all that I can think of off the top of my head… Gosh, is that all we did? What did we do with our time this summer? ;) Why am I feeling like we didn’t do anything this summer? It’s always good to take a moment to reflect on what you’ve been up to – sometimes we are moving so fast and we are so busy that we don’t have time to stop and appreciate all the great things we have going on in our lives. Before you jump back into the swing of the school year, take some time to stop and take a breath and think about all of the great memories you made with your children this summer!