What are your summer plans?

 

Last year for Father's Day, Stenni (& I) made one of those cool, pinterest-inspired summer bucket lists and gave it to hubs for Papa Day (which is what we call Father's Day around these here parts). It was awesome and he kept it in his wallet and checked things off as they went, accomplishing feats like going to 5 different parks, swimming in a pool, lake, river and the ocean,  picking berries (photographic evidence of us at the field above...we went to pick strawberries 2 days ago, the only dry day we've had in weeks, and it was such fun!) and other assorted feats of fun-ness. This worked incredibly well for us last summer, as it gave us plenty of ideas for cheap or free activities and kept us busy all through the season.

But this year, I want to take a different approach. As Stenni is getting a little older, I want her to be able to pick out what we do based on how she feels that day. And I want to be able to spontaneously say "yes" more, so we've scheduled less to fill up our days in general. Also, growing a baby human is pretty hard work, and I just don't have the energy I did last summer, so I don't want to hatch some grand scheme and end up too tired to follow through. I want to be able to go with the flow and let her give in to whims...if we feel like making a fort and pretending to be bears all day, so be it. If it's nice out and she wants to go to my parents' house and play in the pool, we will. There's only so much longer that Stenni will have my undivided attention, and I want to make this summer magical. 

So my over-arching plan is...well, not to plan. Or not to over-plan, at least. The weekends are already pretty full up until the middle of August, so I want to at least play the weekdays by ear. We'll still go blueberry picking and to the zoo, and have playdates and BBQ's, but we'll take them as they come. It's a little hard for me to let go of my lists and my schedule, my type-A personality and my control-freak nature, but I think it'll be worth it for the whole family in the long run. Once the baby comes, the schedule goes out the window anyway, so maybe we'll consider this an intro to the new normal? 

What are your summer plans? Anything set in stone, or everything easy-breezy?