Summer Is Upon Us

Now that we are officially in June, summer is upon us.

As a teacher, I am fortunate enough to have summers off, but I do understand the toll that having kids out of school can take. Some families may look forward to summer because it means relaxed schedules and spending time with the kids. Others families may view it as my parents did: A stressful couple of months of summer camps (which can be costly and difficult to plan around) to make sure the kids are safe while they are out of school.

The signs of summer have reminded me how lucky I am to live in a city where there are so many different summer camp, day camp and recreation activities available on a daily basis to occupy youngsters. With the city's recreation programs alone, kids of all ages have plenty of things to do at relatively inexpensive prices.

That goes for families too. Once the work day is through, our city has tons of ways to spend the remaining daylight hours as a family. We will have options like weekly concerts and movies in the park. There are also some evening nature walks at the local nature center. Our aquarium has just started their late night summer option as well. It is a discounted ticket to be used after 6 pm. We have passes to Disneyland but will soon be facing being blocked out for the summer - this is a good thing with high temps and even larger crowds!

Since I am now 30 weeks pregnant, we won't be taking any family vacations this summer. I also have to keep Stella enrolled in her day care so that we don't lose our spot in the fall. Although I will more than likely keep Stella home once a week,I still want to be sure that we are not sitting at home all summer long. Let's not forget about the fact that we have no air conditioning either. I may sleeping outside in a hammock as my pregnancy progresses if the weather gets too warm.

My parents never let me sit around over the summer. Of course, they had to find us a place to go since they both worked. I appreciate the fact that I never felt bored over the summers and only now do I realize the hassle that was probably involved with finding a place for us.

What are your plans this summer? Aside from vacations, what are some activities that you do to keep the kiddos entertained through those long summer days?

Stella will be continuing Saturday swim lessons.