The Unofficial Beginning of Summer
With Memorial Day weekend marking the unofficial beginning of summer, Nora and I worked on our list of things to do this summer this past weekend -- using the Summer Family Fun Planning template from 247moms.
Among Nora's requests for the summer: "wear my new Dora swimsuit to the beach," "go strawberry picking," "go to the farmhouse" (my in-laws), "do chalk," "play with with soccer and basketball," "have a playdate with J--," "go to the ice cream place and get strawberry ice cream," "ride my bike," "have 4 picnics" (she was pretty specific about the number), and "this summer when I get bigger I want to learn cartwheels."
I have a few other ideas for our list (swimming lessons, church camp...four-year--old well check....), but I'm pretty happy at her ideas and think we can probably accomplish almost all of them (we'll see how she does on the cartwheels).
In fact, we started out with our first picnic of the season this Tuesday evening, meeting one of Nora's friends and her mom at our neighborhood park. Luckily, the big rainstorm had occurred that afternoon and all was clear again by evening.
Our picnic food was pretty basic (as befits a playdate between four-year-olds at the park): turkey, cheese slices, mustard and bread for assembling into sandwiches, juice boxes, Teddy Grahams crackers (or "teddy bear grahams" as Nora calls them), strawberries and blueberries, some Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. Our friend brought (and shared) carrot sticks, string cheese, and popcorn, along with her own sandwiches and cookies.
I did, however, take some inspiration from Econobusters post on picnicking and some from previous tips from the Gooseberry Patch Feather Your Nest email newsletter, and "fancied things up" a little with a blue and white checked terrycloth tablecloth (that came out of my linen closet) to throw over the picnic table and bandanas wrapped around our silverware to be used as napkins. All of this stuff went in our actual wooden picnic basket -- a purchase by DH and I on our honeymoon 11 years ago. It seemed somewhat romantic and impractical at the time, but now it is such fun to use an actual picnic basket. Especially if we are having at least four picnics this summer. ;)
Our park picnic was, of course, right next to the playground, which provided most of the entertainment.
Over Memorial Day weekend, I also got the chance to make a traditional "summer" meal: fried chicken (in the deep fat fryer from my grandma; recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine); sweet corn (wrapped in wax paper and done in the microwave) with cow- and pig-shaped ear holders; potato salad (using some of an 88-cent 5-lb. bag of potatoes); and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler (which used the last of the bags of frozen strawberries in our freezer from last summer's pickings -- although there's still a couple of packages of rhubarb in there). I also made up the first lemonade of the summer.
We got out the flag-themed quilted placemats my mom made for me a while ago, put mini flags in a small blue pitcher, and (at a different meal) made Pop-Tarts Celebration Flags with frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts, cream cheese, sliced strawberries and blueberries.
We also hung our family's U.S.A. flag out on our flagpole for Memorial Day, and took it in before it got dark at night.
Among Nora's requests for the summer: "wear my new Dora swimsuit to the beach," "go strawberry picking," "go to the farmhouse" (my in-laws), "do chalk," "play with with soccer and basketball," "have a playdate with J--," "go to the ice cream place and get strawberry ice cream," "ride my bike," "have 4 picnics" (she was pretty specific about the number), and "this summer when I get bigger I want to learn cartwheels."
I have a few other ideas for our list (swimming lessons, church camp...four-year--old well check....), but I'm pretty happy at her ideas and think we can probably accomplish almost all of them (we'll see how she does on the cartwheels).
In fact, we started out with our first picnic of the season this Tuesday evening, meeting one of Nora's friends and her mom at our neighborhood park. Luckily, the big rainstorm had occurred that afternoon and all was clear again by evening.
Our picnic food was pretty basic (as befits a playdate between four-year-olds at the park): turkey, cheese slices, mustard and bread for assembling into sandwiches, juice boxes, Teddy Grahams crackers (or "teddy bear grahams" as Nora calls them), strawberries and blueberries, some Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. Our friend brought (and shared) carrot sticks, string cheese, and popcorn, along with her own sandwiches and cookies.
I did, however, take some inspiration from Econobusters post on picnicking and some from previous tips from the Gooseberry Patch Feather Your Nest email newsletter, and "fancied things up" a little with a blue and white checked terrycloth tablecloth (that came out of my linen closet) to throw over the picnic table and bandanas wrapped around our silverware to be used as napkins. All of this stuff went in our actual wooden picnic basket -- a purchase by DH and I on our honeymoon 11 years ago. It seemed somewhat romantic and impractical at the time, but now it is such fun to use an actual picnic basket. Especially if we are having at least four picnics this summer. ;)
Our park picnic was, of course, right next to the playground, which provided most of the entertainment.
Over Memorial Day weekend, I also got the chance to make a traditional "summer" meal: fried chicken (in the deep fat fryer from my grandma; recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine); sweet corn (wrapped in wax paper and done in the microwave) with cow- and pig-shaped ear holders; potato salad (using some of an 88-cent 5-lb. bag of potatoes); and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler (which used the last of the bags of frozen strawberries in our freezer from last summer's pickings -- although there's still a couple of packages of rhubarb in there). I also made up the first lemonade of the summer.
We got out the flag-themed quilted placemats my mom made for me a while ago, put mini flags in a small blue pitcher, and (at a different meal) made Pop-Tarts Celebration Flags with frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts, cream cheese, sliced strawberries and blueberries.
We also hung our family's U.S.A. flag out on our flagpole for Memorial Day, and took it in before it got dark at night.