Now that school is out...

What will you and/or your kids be doing this summer?

My son has been out of school for about 3 weeks now. We don't have any big plans though, just a few trips to the community park a week, the zoo here and there, and a couple of weekend trips to St. Louis.

nothing.
They have hundreds of acres here.
Their own reptile park (lizards, snakes and frogs galore),

water park (there is a crick down behind the house if they venture off that far, with bluff banks, twists and turns, and lots of critters),

Amusment rides (the horses, its amusing to watch someone try to catch them),
camp activities (building a mountain out of the junk they pick up in the yard, tieing knots on the trash bags, starting fires to burn the trash, cutting up firewood, picking gardens, raising veggies, archery and shooting sports; )

they will get to expierience city life when I go in for groceries at walmart,

volunteer work, (they can clean each others rooms, help me in the kitchen and with laundry, pick up outside, wash the trucks, )

Parties, their sister has a birthday this week

family, we live with in 1/4 of a mile of all our realtives (less in some instantces)

No major plans, although I did figure out yesterday that if I schedule it I can have them in every catholic VBS in the area, almost all summer.

ROFLMAO erin!

Mine are going to one VBS. its this week.

But wont the gas kill you? I am lucky, a friend of mine who lives out here is driving the van to and from VBS, so she wanted to pick up the kids. Otherwise they wouldnt have went. I cant afford the deisel.

Tory has been home from college for a few weeks now, but has not been able to find a job yet.
I have been very thankful for her being here. Not only does it mean she is not in the Cedar Rapids area since she came home, she has also kept me company and helped me with the puppies, while we had them. Now she is helping me clean our house out getting ready for the my friend and her family to move in with us. I do hope she gets a job soon because she needs to save money for school next year, but so far her job is helping me. This is likely the last summer she will be home, so I am trying to savor every day with her. However, it looks like I won't be having the empty nest I thought I would have!
We still have quite a bit of work to do today and so far I can't get her out of bed. I can't blame her. I wish I were still in bed too

I just booked a few days at a hotel in Ocean City Maryland, other than that, we have nothing planned. Unless you count Lacrosse practices in the backyard as camps?? LOL!

Starrlyte wrote:I just booked a few days at a hotel in Ocean City Maryland, other than that, we have nothing planned. Unless you count Lacrosse practices in the backyard as camps?? LOL!

Small world, I used to spend a week every year at The Plim Plaza in OC

chelle- I wondering how long before they start driving you crazy saying "I'm bored" or playing the time honored game "Let's -see -who -can- drive -Momma -crazy- first- today".
My grown kids used to play that one all the time they were too dumb to realize the prize for winning that game was an ass whooping.

Very cool Scar! I love Ocean City. Beautiful beaches!

My hubby is the one at home with the kids. He's the one that has to deal with the I'm bored, can't we do something?? LOL! He's set up a pretty tight schedule with them! He has them with no video games until 3pm! He makes them read for at least an hour a day too. All 4 of them, including hubby, sit down to read for an hour every morning. He then finds a project for all of them to do outside. If there is nothing, they have to go play outside. The only exception to these rules are rain days. So needless to say, the kids LIKE it to rain! ROFL!

We are always incredibly busy in the summer. Zaven is off at Upward Bound this year. I'll see him for three days over fourth of July, then not again until it's over at the end of July. But, he'll only be home for about a week before he leaves for a different camp. That one's only a week long, but it's in Chicago, so there's drive time.

Caly has two hours of swim practice every morning, and she has a half dozen or so swim meets (four hours long each) in the evenings. Also, she'll be in two different week long day camps (gymnastics, music) and two different sleep away camps. One of those is the one Zaven is going to in Chicago. Plus, she wants to volunteer at a vet's office one afternoon a week this summer because she wants to be a vet when she grows up and she figures the best way to pursue it is to jump in and start cleaning litter boxes, LOL.

Smart girl you have there karen......thats the way to get it started......

Scar wrote:


chelle- I wondering how long before they start driving you crazy saying "I'm bored" or playing the time honored game "Let's -see -who -can- drive -Momma -crazy- first- today".
My grown kids used to play that one all the time they were too dumb to realize the prize for winning that game was an ass whooping.

Scar, They started that the minute they could talk... LOL

and your right, dumb as a box of rocks. Cause they do it EVERY day. sometimes they will even come in in the morning and say "we promise to be good today so you dont have to yell at us"

Then they head off to make cereal, where they get into a fight over who is going to get what bowl and end up spilling it all over the place.

but 5 minutes of no yelling is better than nothin I reckon...

wowo karen!

I figure I spent $40K on a pool, that's their "summer camp", of course right now they are all parked in front of the TV telling me it is too hot to swim....Ingrates!

Chelle, there are 5 churches within a few miles, 3 of them catholic.LOL that;s 6 weeks,

Devon and Sam have t-ball twice/week and will start swimming every morning next week. We're going to do two weeks on then two weeks off of swimming so that they don't burn out. Other than that I hope we won't be doing much!

Lets see, my kids are teenagers so i don't need to find things to do to keep them entertained. Half of the time they don't get out of bed until 10-11 am in the summer, the other half of the summer they are hangin out and doing stuff with friends. We will have a wedding to go to downstate this summer,my niece is getting married. We also have a camping trip planned to go downstate to Bar Harbor. Last year we went and stayed in a Quality in right in town, but this year we wanted to do something a little different. While we are down there we will also go to Prospect and visit Fort Knox.

Let's see....it is raining, they are driving me crazy, DD ate a Banana, they make her UNBELIEVEABLY hyper, so I am going to go nuts.

Wish we had a pool in our yard. I would be in it every day with my son, teaching him to swim.

We have a couple plans. In a couple weeks, we will be meeting a friend at the Wizard World Comic Convention. That will be fun. I will get to meet a few wrestlers that I am a fan of, and the original Micheal Meyers from Halloween.

We will be dogsitting a weekend in July. That will be fun. My son loves this dog, and she is so good with him. She is very protective of the family. She is a mixed pitbull and something... not sure what though.

In August, I have my son's birthday. He is lucky to be having it at a carnival. There will be one across the street at the high school. Play at the carnival and then when everyone gets hungry, walk across the street for a BBQ. A few weeks after that, we will be meeting up with my friend again to watch the Star Wars Clone Wars movie.

Weekends that we don't already have plans will be spent doing spur of the moment stuff with Tim. being that we can't do much during the week, I make sure that we all do something as a family when he is home.

Probably a couple mornings fishing, swimming at the State Park, or at the water slides. Garage sale hopping (once I am on a roll, I am on a roll!). Go to the Rockford Speedway and watch the races.

KellyM wrote:Lets see, my kids are teenagers so i don't need to find things to do to keep them entertained. Half of the time they don't get out of bed until 10-11 am in the summer, the other half of the summer they are hangin out and doing stuff with friends. We will have a wedding to go to downstate this summer,my niece is getting married. We also have a camping trip planned to go downstate to Bar Harbor. Last year we went and stayed in a Quality in right in town, but this year we wanted to do something a little different. While we are down there we will also go to Prospect and visit Fort Knox.

LMAO and forgive me if I read this wrong but you consider the Quality Inn camping? You must be a city girl. Around here camping means you get a tent and a sleeping bag and sleep on the ground in the wilderness. Some MIGHT consider using a camper to be camping but I am fairly certain the Quality Inn just doesn't count.

lol tara, no... Last year we stayed at the quality inn, this year we are going camping at the Blackwoods campground we will be using a tent lol

LOL Kelly- I'm so relieved to hear that! LOL I was thinking OMG camping in a hotel huh? I wonder what she does when she breaks a nail....

LOL, last year the kids wanted to stay in a hotel because it had a pool and was close to downtown BarHarbor and all the stores and shops. This year we decided we wanted to get away from the commercialism and just enjoy the nature. The kids are excited about going camping, we haven't done it for a very long time. We will be staying at the campground and the kids can go swimming a little ways away in Echo Lake, the area is really beautiful. We also have planned to go see Thunderhole, and then before leaving on the last day go to Fort Knox. I am definitely not one who cries when I break a nail. lol I grew up with 3 older siblings who tortured me daily. I am not manly either lol but I can hold my own. I do most repairs around the house cause hubby is a computer geek (i use this term lovingly).

My hubby is a geek too. You're braver than me, I have a completely irrational fear of fish, yup even the tiny ones. They are nasty gross creatures I do not swim unless there is chlorine involved... or I'm too drunk to care which hasn't happened in years. LOL

Ya know, I didn't even think about camping or fishing, we do either every weekend. It's usually more work than fun for me, so i do not consider it a vacation.
BTW Tara, we camp in a tent, a big ass tent yes, but still a tent.

LOL Good to know. I realize now all our members whose idea of camping is the Marriott, I have insulted.