Summer Showdown

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Summer Showdown2

While I am very much looking forward to the warmer weather, I must admit: this is the first summer I’ve approached with some trepidation. Xander will be out of school, I’m not teaching until the fall (and thus won’t have a built in excuse to leave the house a few times a week), and the days are already seeming impossibly long.

Xander will be four this summer, and he absolutely needs structure and routine. He is miserable without it. And, thus, so are the rest of us.

The problem is, I am not an organized person. Shocking, no?

Last year I posted my summer bucket list (and I actually did manage to do quite a few of those!), but this year I’m more about the day to day. Having a younger sibling throws a bit of a wrench into things, too. Luna is 15 months, still not fully walking (thus needing me to finger walk her around everywhere), and is still transitioning to one nap – her most consistent nap is in the morning (which is naturally the opposite of Xander’s afternoon quiet time).

I have about 2 months before Xander’s preschool lets out, so my hope is to push Luna’s nap until the afternoon (having consistently nice weather would help me out, here, VERMONT), and then set up a daily routine:

  • Wakeup and breakfast
  • Outing
  • Lunch (either out or back home)
  • Home and quiet time/nap
  • Playtime (outside or with toys in the soon to be play room)
  • Dinner

If Luna refuses to cooperate on the nap front (and let me tell you, that baby can be STUBBORN), then I guess I’d have to move the outing to after lunch.

But, here are some of the “outing” type things we’ve done in the past when the weather is nice:

Summer Showdown1

  • Lake Iroquois
  • Waterfront Walk
  • Echo
  • Shelburne Farm
  • Shelburne Museum
  • Various parks (we’re partial to Maple Street Park in Essex)
  • Nature Walks/Kid Friendly Hikes
  • On the Rise Bakery/Park

So what about you? What are your favorite day activities in the area? And are you a routine family during the summer, or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of family?

2 COMMENTS

  1. great post! i hear what you’re saying about the younger sibling thing. last year when henry was home during the summer (with a few week camps mixed in) i had the same issues..and kept saying that next summer will be easier. but now that ruby is older and walking she is at that age where she won’t walk with us and runs all over the place. its tough. also, we aren’t a very structured family but last year i tried to be structured during the weeks that henry wasn’t at camp. it didn’t work and caused so much more pressure and stress. but i get it..some days i wish we had major structure..especially when the kids are both home.

  2. We love Oakledge Park too. Especially now that Nora is old enough, I think she might like the tree house this year 🙂 Another favorite of ours is Sandbar State Park in Grand Isle. It is great because even not so great swimmers can go in the water and have some fun since it isn’t deep at all.

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