Making the Most of our Summer

So with having a new baby at the beginning of the Summer we didn't do a whole lot. I'm one that will be a bit more strict at the beginning of the baby days to get them on a good routine and sacrifice our normalcy. That meant not a lot of getting out of the house. Normally, it's been fine, but with the girls getting older I did feel bad about keeping them inside so much and not having ways for them to get their energy out. Not to mention I wanted them to have more memories of this summer (even if they'll forget them in the future). I will say losing Baby Girl (our cat) really made me realize we needed to make sure we were having good times now, rather than waiting till later. It shook me up a bit more than I thought it would.

With that being said, we've been able to make the last bit of our summer a lot of fun. We made sure to get Cara and Gwen out swimming at our neighborhood pool for the last few weeks it was open (we switched off who got to take them during nap time on the weekends. Larry would do a Saturday and I would do a Sunday). The girls made HUGE strides in their swimming abilities this summer. They ended last year with Cara being okay being in the pool with floaties, but wouldn't put her face/head anywhere near the water if she could help it. Gwen always wanted to be held with floaties on and didn't want to swim much on her own. This summer Cara started taking her floaties off and walking to as far as she could, she'd practice holding onto the side and going to the deepest end, she also would jump into the pool in our arms then jumped in on her own with floaties on or into our arms without the floaties, but didn't mind if she went under a little. She also started practicing holding her breath and going under the water on her own. Gwen started jumping in and swimming ALL on her own with floaties on. We even got her jumping into our arms with floaties on as well. Both girls were so brave and earned many suckers for trying so many new things. We also practiced a lot of kicking to get them used to the swimming "pose". 

Swimming wears them out

We also had fun summer treats. We got some otter pops and had those anytime we went to play outside. But then we also got s'more makings and roasted marshmallows on our bbq and had lots of those. They were SO yummy and I was glad to have fun treats to share with the girls.

The marshmallows were a hit with this

We played a lot in the backyard. I made sure when Larry went back to work I'd send the girls outside during Pierce's first nap of the day so they could be loud and play and he could get a decent nap. I'd get them some snacks and water and make sure they had something like sidewalk chalk, play doh, coloring things, etc. Cara also learned to swing and became obsessed with it. It was really nice to let them get outside more and I feel it helped with nap time. I also loved being outside with them. I'd let them play while I worked. I'd take little breaks to swing Lucy (who LOVED being on the swings this summer) or do some homework items with Cara. It felt like I was really engaging with them and having good bonding time. On days it got too hot we let them play out back in the morning (when we had more shade back there) and then we'd play out front after dinner (when we had more shade there). The girls loved getting on their scooters and bikes and run around or race each other. We may not have gone far, but they had lots of fun.

We even took some family walks with Pierce in the carrier. He seemed to love being outside. This was a HUGE relief because in the beginning it seemed like taking him outside messed with his sleeping at night so we really didn't get out much, but him getting over that and liking being outside really helped make our summer more special.

So overall our summer might not have been ideal, but we still found ways to make the days special with the kids and I look forward to many more summer with the kids.