Summer Fun?

While trying to convince my children to play outside in the pleasant heat of our backyard, amidst the ever-present biting mosquitoes, and non-confrontational carpenter bees, I think I promised them something about races and water balloons tomorrow. Wow, I hope it rains! Just kidding, I am not all frump over here. However, I did think of a few (meaning three) games that we could play in such conditions (heat, bees, and mosquitoes).

1. BWHF (Backyard Water Hose Fights) akin to WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation).
It would be nice if we had a three headed spicket with three hoses so my kids could drench the house, each other, make the yard a bog, and further attract yet more mosquitoes to multiply in my yard. Unfortunately, we only have one hose for our single headed spicket, so on to option 2.

2. Minute to Win it: Backyard Edition.
In this round, contestants compete against each other to see who can get the most mosquito bites in one minute. The prize? A bottle of Caladryl Clear to sooth those war wounds!

3. BeeMinton.
We have found it rather therapeutic to take our aggression (when we have them-so rare!) out on the bees that drill into the beams and rafters of our glorious back porch. So, give everyone a racket and see who can hit the most off the porch!

So what do you do in the summertime?

I knew my child had super skills...

So Sam is already good at multi-tasking. What more can a mother ask for. If only he could fit Jacob into this equation somehow, but come on! There has to be a limit to what a 7 year old can accomplish right?

So I am sure this is what they would like to be doing all summer, but I have news for them (and mostly for myself): This is not what it will be like. I would like to think that I will plan a fun outing every week, but alas, I am lazy and have a new baby and will use every excuse I can to stay indoors.

So these are the things on our agenda, but it is not planned or complete:

1. Learn Spanish. (Sam's greatest desire)
Luckily, I know just enough conversational French to get us by. Just kidding.

2. Go to the Star Wars exhibit.

3. Visit family.

So that's about it (so far), but I intend to add more items that will stimulate my children's minds. But I also know that if I make a huge, elaborate plan, we will never accomplish half of it. Did I mention that I have a new baby and have to feed her every five minutes?

So I hope you have a fun summer (and hopefully you don't dread all of your kids being home like I do-because one more is so much harder and all) and will give me some great ideas to entertain and possibly subdue my minions.

Some pics of Zaida...