Finding our (bare) feet

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

-"Summertime"

from the musical Porgy and Bess

by George Gershwin

So we have one baby and two pre-schoolers who - fair enough - haven't learned the difference between weekdays and the weekends (as in, you can sleep in on weekends), and I certainly don't expect them to know the difference between the last day of school and summer.

But our kids noticed. That's what happens when you grown up at a Torchbearer school. The students become a very real part of our day-to-day lives. Our kids know them by name. They have inside jokes with them. So when the students graduated in May, our lives changed. I wrote about this in my post RaggedyTaggedy.

Since May, our family has been adjusting to, well, summer. We are, if you will, finding our (bare) feet in this season. What does summer look like for us? How do I as a Mama - aka, tour guide - give the free, unstructured, endless summer to our children in a fun and constructive way? How do I open up this season to three tinys?

Where our Keen sandals

(to you non-Coloradan readers, substitute "flip-flopped" feet)

have been taking us:

1) the playground

2) the wading pool at the local aquatic center

3) picnics around Ravencrest

4) the library for Storytime

5) the YMCA (the Y as Erik and I call it; the YMC as Catherine calls it)

And what we've been doing:

1) making new friends at the playground and library

2) listening to books on CD during the 45 minute drive to the "YMC"

3) filling out our "Read Stampede" reading log from the library (yeehaw!)

4) firing up the barbie for cookouts with the summer interns

5) getting excited about swimming lessons

6) getting excited about upcoming visits from friends and family

How do you enjoy the summertime?

and, for the parents among us,

How do you/did you give your children these days, when the livin' is easy?