19 days

We have a mere 19 days until school begins. I've been trying not to think about it too much, as it means our days will soon be starting MUCH earlier than they ever have before, there will be homework and lots of obligations we just haven't had to deal with since early last June. 19 days. We have two more trips planned this month, we're not letting summer end quietly.

Here's my list of what made this summer rock (other than some great vacations obviously):

1. Weekly playdates with Grandma Lynn. We've been able to swing a day with Grandma almost every week this summer. Most of our time together has been spent wrangling the boys thru Costco or Target while we ran errands, or at the pool. But its been nice spending so much time with Grandma since during the school year its not quite as easy.

2. Free movies. Our local movie theatre (and I'm assuming this is true all over the place) plays free kids movies twice each week during the morning. We've taken advantage of this whenever we've been able to this summer and met friends there, or gone solo. After the first trip of spending $20 in refreshments for a 'free' movie, I wised up and we brought our own snack stash in my bag. How can they justify $6 for a small popcorn and $4 for water? I don't feel even one bit guilty being a snack smuggler.


3. Our garden. Andrew did an excellent job planting our maiden garden and we've had tons of great veggies so far this summer. A few times I've pondered 'what's for dinner' only to suddenly remember there was broccoli or tomatoes ready to pick and all I had to do was walk out back!

4. Free summer concerts. We've attended many a free concert this summer and spent lots of evenings with friends, laughing kids, a glass of wine and great food, while rocking out to some good tunes. I'm really going to miss this when summer winds down.

5. My little rolling cooler. I know, it doesn't seem a likely candidate for this list. But I can't count the number of times we've loaded up that cooler with sandwiches and gone off to the pool or a park this summer. I could just pile our towel and toy bags on top of the cooler and wheel right on into the pool. Priceless!

19 days. Let's make them count.