Welcome Summer!

My binder full of kid stuff (magazine tear-outs of ideas for activities/crafts/food/etc) has been ignored quite a bit over the last 6-12 months.  But I did remember some cool suggestions for a last day of school surprise that came from Family Fun magazine ages ago.  So I dug it up and borrowed a couple ideas.

 

I printed off huge letters to make a little banner and took some card stock and yarn to work with me today.  Then I just quickly threw this together over my lunch break.  I'd also collected a few summery things into some sand pails that we already owned and placed them below the banner for the kids to find.  I hit up the Target dollar bins for some card games and little book report notebook for Will.  I also had a bug observer thing with a magnifying glass and view finder for Soph.  And then, because these were all the rave last summer, I picked them up each a water squirter gun for the pool/beach.  Oh, and I made them each three "coupons" good for a trip to the Big Dipper for ice cream, a bike ride at Maumee Bay and a picnic at the playground/park.

I left work a little early in hopes of getting this set up and meeting Will's bus so I could get pictures of him getting off.  They elementary school dismissed an hour early today.  Well it was a pretty windy/hot afternoon and I had a heck of a time hanging the banner.  It was going to go on our deck on the stair railing, but I ended up putting it on the garage so I could tape down each letter.  Otherwise that thing was blowing away!  As I was finishing up getting everything together, I saw the bus pull out of the neighborhood across the street where our babysitter lives and knew that I missed him.  Ah, well.  Not the end of the world.  I still went straight over when I finished and surprised them with an early pick up.  Soph was still sleeping but I decided to wake her and just put her to bed early.  I made a big show of acting surprised at "what in the world is on the garage?"  And both kids strained their necks to see through the windshield.  Will shouted "it says 'Welcome Summer!'!!"  I stopped the car a little ways back and they both hopped out and ran up to see my surprise.  :)

Another cool idea was to meet the kids at the bus stop with loaded squirt guns or water balloons and get them as soon as they got off the bus.  Haha!  Maybe when they're a little older.  They wouldn't find that too funny yet, I don't think.  :)

I decided to do this on Will's last day simply because it would be the official start of our kids' summer with a totally laid back routine starting tomorrow.  Plus, preschool is such a short day and so part time that it's not as much of a needed break when summer arrives.  I don't think Sophie felt an ounce of bitterness for this falling on Will's last day and not hers.  :)

Since I was home early, our evening was so much longer and fun/productive than usual.  Typically, our evenings fly by with all the routine stuff and it's harder to fit in the fun/spontaneity.  For a Wednesday night, this was pretty awesome!  We immediately got down the baby pool from the garage rafters and filled it with water, put on our swim suits, got the sprinkler going and grabbed three ice waters to cool off.

The kids tested out the new water shooters...

... and I got out my gardening gloves and spade with a goal of planting all of the vegetable plants and seeds I bought last week.  That's my rhubarb plant all huge and lush there in the corner.  :)

Tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers, oh my!

It was a hot day, but I was kept cool with plenty of squirts to the back from the kids new toys and they had a blast kickin' off the summer in our backyard.

Put 'em up, sprinkler.

While I was digging around in the garden, I found a couple of bugs/tiny worms and called the kids over quickly to grab the bug viewer thing for inspection.

Will was really interested in helping get the garden in this year.  I told him if he waited for me to get some of it started, I'd let him plant a tomato plant.  One of the cherries, which are his fave.

So, I gave him instructions and he did it himself, with just a little extra patting around of the dirt from me.

Then he watered all of the tomato plants for me.

Totally on his own, Will brought out his markers and a library book and got started writing his first mini "report" in his notebook.  It asks for the title, author's name, main characters, favorite part, etc. and leaves space for you to draw a picture of a part of it.  He worked for a little while on this!  Ha!  Last day of school and he's choosing to do this.

Craig gave Will a much needed hair cut before dinner and then we ate.

And after dinner, Will handed me his Dipper coupon and said "HERE YOU GO!!"  He was quite pleased and matter of fact about it.  :)  So we went!  And we ran into Casey, Nana and Stella there!  Great minds think alike.

And that was our "last day of school" and "welcome summer" celebration. 

It's gonna be a great season!