What did you do in the summer time...when all the grass was green?

Every summer since my kids were (quite a bit) younger and ALL still living under our roof, I've tried to make fun summer memories for them. I think that it stems from my childhood...those years of me going back to school in the fall, and having my teachers ask me to write an essay on "What I did this Summer".

 Every year I was sad (and sometimes even a little mad) because I didn't get to write about fun stuff like going to Disneyland, going boating or on week long trips...it was usually things like, "I weeded the garden, pulled some weeds in the flower beds, fed the sheep and pigs, gathered eggs, saw a snake while I was picking strawberries, picked green beans, picked apricots from our 3 apricot trees, made jam, canned tomatoes...oh and pulled some MORE WEEDS." Very seldom did we do anything fun or out of the ordinary when I was young. I appreciate that I was taught to work and I appreciate that I now know how to work hard without turning my nose up at it. I know that my parents did the best they could. We didn't grow up with alot of money and they did what they could for us living out in the country on a farm. We made our own kind fun ( I loved my childhood and wouldn't trade it for anything), but it just didn't seem "fun enough to write an essay about." I wanted to write about the "fun" kind of things that all my friends got to write about. Summer is supposed to be exciting and packed full of fun, although there has to be a little (sometimes alot) work in there too...thats part of it, I certainly agree 100% and I thoroughly understand that because my children have to work hard too...just like I did. BUT when I had children I knew that I wanted to make things a little more interesting and exciting for them during the summer. I didn't want them to have to go back to school and write essays with nothing exciting or even "out of the ordinary" to write about. SO... I have always tried to take my kids on "field trips"  a couple of times a month during their summer vacation.

 In the past we have gone hiking, to the zoo, to amusement parks, to the dinosaur museum, swimming at the pool, picnics at the lake...sometimes we've had an afternoon of watching a DVD and eating popcorn...playing night games, just something to break up the monotony of the hot summer days.

THIS YEAR however has been ALOT different...with days, running into weeks, of daily doctor visits for Cameron, we haven't had any time to "field trip". I feel like a failure as a mom and a ruiner of summer! The other day Halle was asking me if we were ever going to go on a field trip, I assured her that we were...(now just when to find a day is the question!). After dealing with my guilt and frustration of not having "field trip" days yet, and having summer more than half over...I told Halle that if she wanted to, we would give her a "make over"

...wax her eyebrows, do her make up...you know, all the fun girly stuff. 

She was excited and we had fun doing something different for a few hours. 

Hopefully SOON, VERY SOON, we can go on a field trip or 2  or even 5, before school starts back up....I think I like the trips as much as the kids do.