Somehow, my dreamy way of thinking, I thought I’d have MORE time, not less, to dedicate to my food blog this summer. Clearly, I was mistaken.
Summer for our family officially started on June 7, and the past month has flown by in record time. Trust me, I have plenty of pictures, food pictures, recipes and words of advice to offer, but it will have to wait.
Nope. I’m not quitting my blog. I’m just taking the summer at a slower pace than expected. Quality time with my 6 and 3 year old has been amazing and I am enjoying being “in” the moment.
Instead, I’ll share some fun stuff we’ve done so far:

1. Joined not 1, but 2 public library summer reading programs. I love these because it encourages my already strong readers to read even more, and challenge themselves with tougher books. They also earn some pretty sweet prizes. In Madison, they earn pizza, subs and passes to museums, etc. In Milwaukee, they’ve already earned a family pass to Milwaukee Art Museum, tattoos, ice cream and on their way to free Milwaukee County Zoo pass, brewer baseball and a few other cool prizes. Adding up all of these passes, it’s worth a few hundred.
2. Tennis and Soccer: The kids are at that dreamy age where they can participate in sports together. For pick up and drop off times, this is amazing. Plus, I know they have each others backs while participating. They do love each other. Tennis is twice weekly and soccer is every Tuesday morning.
3. Splash Pads + Pools: we’ve done a fair amount of swimming here and lots of time at McKee Farms Dream Park, both splash pad and playground.
4. Movie: We visit the movies and enjoy pop corn popped with vegetable oil, not peanut oil.
5. Backyard: our swing-set and slide has been used more than I thought. The kids love playing make-believe and “fort” on our set. Lucky it came with the house!
6. Strawberry picking + lunch with Daddy at work.
7. Multiple trips to Milwaukee for family time.
8. Olbrich Rhapsody in Bloom + visiting the gardens (for chocolate rocks!).
9. Themed educational weeks: I don’t like the educational drop off that kids have during summer. Their brains are sponges at this point in life and I believe you can still have fun while learning. We’ve had two weeks of “themed” learning + activities, books and meals together. The first was Dinosaur Discovery and the second was Mayan Culture (Princess Elena). This week we’re learning about the water cycle.

I take my job so seriously. Probably too seriously. But I only get this one chance to be a positive role model for my kids. There is no user manual for being a good parent. Just trial and error. And just when you think you have it all figured out, it changes. Stages of life change, friends change, kids change, etc. Life is always changing. So cheers to you and your summer, whatever you do, make it fun!
I’ll be back blogging 100% August 20 to get you school-safe ready as we head into another exciting school year and as I transition into my new roles: vice president of home + school (PTA) and assistant girl scout troop leader for my daughter’s school. And room-parent for my son’s school.