Best Summer Ever!

We are having so much fun this summer. The last few weeks of school were such a flurry of activity; I had no idea how busy it would be. The last day of school was a half day and by the time we got home, Maggie was in a bit of a funk about missing her friends and her teacher. It was more than a funk - it was a big, foul mood. She got out of the car and stomped up the sidewalk to the porch. As soon as she saw the front door her face broke into a huge grin and she started giggling like crazy. It was pretty much exactly the reaction I hoped for.



Metro Nashville School District shortened the summer and school starts back on August 1 this year, so our summer is very short. I really wanted to be intentional about this summer and not just fritter the time away. In the span of three days in April, every week in June got booked up with activities - church camps and art camp and Cousin Camp (that deserves its own post). Maggie is going to Texas with Grant's parents and we'll spend some time there, so that left us with only a few "free" weeks. I actually saw the idea for a "summer bucket list" several years ago from a blog I read, but this year was our first year with a child having a real summer break (Maggie's preschool went through the summer). Our "summer bucket list" is a list of activities we want to do this summer. Here's our list:
 
In case you can't read it it says

• Buy ice cream from the ice cream truck
• Have a lemonade stand
• Blueberry picking
• Paint rocks for the garden
• Monkey's Treehouse (an indoor play place)
• Coal Train Railroad and picnic at Cheekwood (a kid's jazz band, playing at the botanical gardens
• Cumberland Park (a new splash park right on the river downtown)
• Swim picnic for dinner
• Bounce U (inflatable play place)
• Little House on the Prairie Week (we kinda love LHOTP around here. The "LHOTP week" idea came from the first book where Laura describes how each day had its own work, like wash on Monday, mend on Tuesday, bake on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, etc)
• Judson VBS/Redeemer VBS (a local church's VBS and our church's VBS)
• Art camp (at The Covenant School)
• Cousin Camp (a long weekend of fun activities with my Mimi and Poppy - right now it's only theoretically cousin camp as you must be 6 to attend Cousin Camp and none of the other cousins are old enough)
• TX trip
• Downtown library story time
• Downtown library puppet show with a snack at Provence, the French cafe/bakery located at the library
• Mud Park at Shelby Bottoms (a part of a city park intended for kids to get muddy in)
• write letters (something to help prevent brain drain, and fun!)
• Make s'mores
• Get a book of science experiments from the library and do one
• HAVE A FUN SUMMER!

Each time we do an activity Maggie gets to cross it off the list. I'm pretty sure we can do them all. We've been having a blast so far. I hope to write a few posts soon about all the fun things we've been doing so far, with lots of photos.

And now for some extra cuteness, here is Maggie's first day of kindergarten:
 

And here's her last day of kindergarten: