Farewell Summer...you treated us well.

At the beginning of the summer we revamped our chore charts to be more "summer appropriate" (ie. watering the flowerbeds, strawberries and squash, opening and closing windows, etc.). Then we sat down with the kids and asked them what goals they would like to set for the summer. Kate wanted to go to Nana and Papa's, Grandma Nila's and the beach, have a tea party with friends, etc. I wanted her to actually learn the ABC song (instead of singing "ABCDESG....you get the idea), read at least 30 books, memorize one of the Articles of Faith of our church, etc. Owen wanted to take an art class and swimming lessons, sleep in a tent 4 times, etc. I wanted him to read 50 books, learn some new words in Spanish, Memorize 5 Articles of Faith, etc. Davis wanted to go to the zoo, and do all of the other things that Owen wanted to do. That happened with all of them actually. One child would say, "I want to go to the beach!" and the others would pipe up, "ME TOO!" I wanted Davis to read at least 50 books, memorize our telephone number, learn 3 Articles of Faith, etc.

After our lists were created I posted them on the kitchen wall where the kids could easily access them and check off the goals as they were achieved. Overall I think that the system worked well and I will definitely have them come up with another "Summer Bucket List" next year. Of course we didn't get everything crossed off, but we did quite a lot.

That being said, this is how we spent the last week of summer...

We asked each of the kids what they would like to do for one last Mommy or Daddy "Date" before the summer ended. Davis first picked to go on a "date" with Mommy and Daddy to Hawaii. When we couldn't quite swing that, he chose to go hiking and out to dinner at Sonic with his dad. I love that my kids adore their dad. It reminds me that I really got a good guy when I married Jed.
Owen was next and he chose to have a "late up" with Mom and Dad (in other words he got to stay up later than the other kids and hang out with me and Jed). We called Grandma Nila and watched a show about military tanks and subs. He also chose to go to dinner with Jed at Sonic.
We did ask Kate what she really wanted to do and she kept insisting that she just wanted to go run errands with me. I didn't take a picture of us grocery shopping, but you'll have to trust me that we had fun.

Then with only a few days left before school started the kids turned the slide into a water slide. I knew that I was running the risk of having one of them break a limb, but I loved hearing their laughter as the flew down the slide. I figure let them live and be uninhibited, right?




While the big kids discovered the wonderful world of water slides...Gracie discovered the wonderful world of plum trees!