CREATING A DREAMY SUMMER FOR OUR BIG FAMILY
Campfire’s under the stars with hot dogs and pie irons.
Reading a book on the beach, while the kids splash in the ocean. Katherine in a bikini of course.
Early morning coffee on the deck, as the sun peeks through the trees.
Popsicles, and lemonade, and pancakes and watermelon and so much ice cream perched on top of sugar cones.
Sticky fingers, and dirt smeared faces.
These are the things that flash across the screen of my mind when I think of a dreamy summer.
They’re all pretty simple things.
So why is it that it’s so easy for a summer to fly by, leaving us with the feeling of having somehow missed the whole damn thing?
“Have a good summer with our kids” is a great goal but what does a “good summer” even look like?
It turns out that before you can have a dreamy summer you have to decide what it looks like.
Dreamy Summer Family Meeting
Every June as we wrap up the school year we assemble our family of 7 at the dining room table with a sharpie and a big pad of paper.
“Alright everyone”, Katherine starts in, “It’s that time! It’s time for our Summer Bucket List! Remember this is just our brainstorming list. I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath and think of your favourite summer day… What's happening around you? Where are you? What are you doing? Who is with you?... take another deep breath and open your eyes...Okay everyone what does your perfect summer day look and feel like?”
Yes, hope that one by one they would tell us their dreamy beautiful days but like all kids, mostly they just shout over each other as we frantically write down all wild and simple things that would make their summer awesome. It’s chaos! filled with silly ridiculously dreams and simple wonderful moments of connection.
Here’s what ours looks like:
Dreamy Summer Bucket List
Kayak Camp
Popsicles
Go to Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto
Gelato at Harlan’s
“Family Camp”, with our friends in Portland!
Watermelon
Go to the skate park
Night Swimming looking for Bioluminescence
Swimming at the lake.
Go fishing
A trip back to Calgary to see friends.
A trip off island to go shopping
Beach days
Swimming at our friends house
S'mores and campfires
Hamburgers
Stories around the campfire
Hotdogs
Pie Irons
Sleep Under the stars Cowboy style
Build a new Sawmill Bunkie so the teens can move out into their own space.
Create a skate park
Build a Wood Stove For Pizza
Make a zipline
Plant a veggie garden
Raise meat quail
Get 4 Kayaks
Grow all the flowers
Create a gate so we can go down to the Creek behind our house.
And the list goes on and on and on, and on and on and onnnnnn!!!! Isn’t this the most delightful list there ever was?
Sure there are a few things that aren’t possible on there so we narrow it down to a top 20, eliminating the things that just aren’t going to happen this year, like flying to Toronto so we can go do Canada’s Wonderland for example.
Freezies, swimming, summer camp, hamburgers and sleeping under the stars, are all things we can handle. Hell some of the things are free.
But without this list I might not know that keeping a steady supply of popsicles in the freezer, and S’mores supplies on hand was the difference between feeling like we were having an abundant summer and feeling like “we don’t ever get to have any fun!”
Without making this list with our kids every summer Katherine and I would absolutely waste our energy trying to love our kids in ways that exhaust us out of proportion and don’t matter to them.
Turns Out Camping Is Not Quite Their Thing
Both Katherine and I thought our kids would want to go camping even though we can’t go to Portland for our annual camping trip with friends. The devastation over missing out of Portland, and “Family Camp” as we call it, was so big that we might even do the terrible awful no good very hard thing of taking them camping somewhere in Canada instead. Except we aren’t very good campers. And we find it really hard. Because we asked, and did our list we found out that the kids don’t actually want to go camping if it’s not with their friends.
Good thing we didn’t invest all of our time, energy, and money into camping only to be secretly resentful of our kids for not having a good enough time or enjoying it enough, you know since they didn't want to do it to begin with.
Instead...
We’ll save our money and put it towards our next Sawmill Bunkie, buy copious amounts of dyed sugar water in the form of popsicles, at the beach and eat hamburgers for dinner, with ice cream for dessert, more often than not.
Because for our family that’s what a dreamy summer looks like.
Remember, you can’t create a dreamy summer for your family on purpose, if you don't know what one looks like for all of your people. So gather your family around the table, grab your sharpies and the biggest paper you can find and let everyone dream out loud about their summer.
What does the perfect summer look like for you and your family?
“Have a good summer with our kids” is a great goal but what does a “good summer” even look like? Before you can have a relaxing, fun, dreamy summer with your kids, you all have to decide what it looks like.
