What Do You Do in the Summertime...

...when all the world is way too hot to go outside?

I'll get to that...

So far things are going well with four kids. The older kids love the baby and always want to hold him. I would say it is easier to have the fourth baby than say, the first. Not because I don't get up several times a night or because my body is not going through the same recovery. It's just that I know what to expect and realize that this phase will only last a short while. I love having a newborn in our home. Connor is so warm, soft, snugly and sweet smelling. I look at his tiny features and am overcome by how much I love him and how amazing it is to have him here. I love how his forehead wrinkles up into his hair and all the little sounds he makes. I love it when he curls his arms and legs up and lays on my chest. I love snuggling up with him to take a nap. I love how fresh from heaven he is. I love this picture of Marissa and him (it's hard to keep clothes on that girl--you're lucky she has a diaper on).

One of the hardest things for me right now is the weather. I wish I could just send my kids out to play for hours like I do in the winter. Even when they do play in the pool or sprinklers they don't last very long out there. I haven't felt ambitious/crazy enough to take all four kids out anywhere yet. So this means we are stuck inside the house all day. The kids do pretty well just playing together, but it does get a little tiresome being in the same four walls all the time. My only plan for the summer was to have the baby, and now that I have I realize that I should probably have some other sort of plan. I got a few ideas from some other blogs and this is what I'm trying:

1. Implement the Marble Jars

This is for Erin and Alex. They basically earn marbles whenever they do jobs like help with dishes, laundry, clean up a room, wash the mirror, clean the toilet (a favorite), wipe out the sink, etc. They also get them for reading for 30 minutes, writing in their journal, memorizing a scripture or learning a new song on the piano. Once they fill up their jar they get to choose a reward like a pack of gum, getting ice cream from the ice cream truck, having a sleepover, etc. Erin seems slightly more motivated to get her jar filled, but Alex does all right too. I can't say my house is any cleaner, but it makes me feel like I'm teaching them that they have to help out around here.

2. Implement Quiet Time

So I've only done it once so far, but as soon as I introduced it they had no problem with it. I put Erin in her room, locked Marissa in her room (she was the only one to protest) and had Alex read books quietly in the family room. Marissa cried for 3 minutes and fell asleep against the door and Alex read his book about 5 times and then he fell asleep. I took a shower, made my bed and threw some laundry in before Connor woke up. It felt great! I sort of thought Erin had fallen asleep too but about 30 minutes later I hear her ask if quiet time was over. Woops. Am I supposed to end the peace and quiet? She read the Articles of Faith twice and her talk three times. Quiet time just may save us this summer.

3. Make a List of Things To Do This Summer

This was pretty fun to create, especially hearing the kids come up with ideas. Alex came up with some great ones like 'Bounce', 'Be silly' and 'Sleep with cats'. After we suggested paper airplanes he kept saying, "I know what we could do, we could make paper teeth" (or paper bears, or paper rocket ships, etc). After he thought of 'Trace your whole body' he wanted to trace everything like books, cheeks, noses, etc. Some of his didn't make the list, but they sure made me laugh. Nothing is too difficult, but hopefully it will make me feel like I'm accomplishing something and not just "surviving" or letting the kids watch TV all day. And I'm not saying we're going to do everything, but at least it will give us new ideas.

101 Things To Do This Summer

1. Make a fort and sleep in it
2. Have a picnic
3. Eat popsicles
4. Bounce
5. Go to library story time
6. Read about animals
7. Go to a farm and ride a horse
8. Put on a play
9. Make a video
10. Go to a parade
11. Take 20 pictures
12. Blow bubbles
13. Draw with chalk and play hopscotch
14. Go swimming
15. Find shapes in the clouds
16. Make play dough
17. Trace hands and feet
18. Go see a movie
19. Make paper airplanes
20. Learn origami
21. Decorate cookies
22. Memorize a scripture
23. Fireworks
24. Create a card and mail it
25. Finger paint with pudding
26. Paint with sponges & potatoes
27. Play soccer
28. Sleep with cats
29. Read “Little House on the Prairie”
30. Visit an aquarium
31. Act out a scripture story
32. Make tin foil dinners
33. Have a marshmallow fight
34. Be silly
35. Make an obstacle course
36. Roast marshmallows and make s’mores
37. Attend a concert
38. Go to the beach
39. Make fingerprint art
40. Make yogurt popsicles
41. Trace our whole bodies
42. Make a puzzle
43. Discover a new favorite author
44. Plant something
45. Donate toys and clothes you no longer use
46. Complete library’s summer reading program
47. Help weed outside
48. Go without TV for a day
49. Learn some new outdoor games
50. Make up a new story
51. Make something from recyclables
52. Watch a video of a ballet
53. Watch the birds
54. Make shadow shapes with flashlights
55. Go to a planetarium
56. Go to Burger King
57. Cook or bake something new
58. Learn some Spanish
59. Play a game on the computer
60. Sing Primary songs
61. Make up a silly dance
62. Watch family videos
63. Make a collage of words and pictures
64. Make a macaroni necklace
65. Play hide and seek
66. Run through the sprinklers
67. Make something with a cardboard box
68. Write a poem or song
69. Try a new food
70. Ride bikes
71. Go for a walk and listen to sounds
72. Find insects
73. Make orange Julius
74. Do something nice for someone
75. Play a game
76. Play with balloons
77. Pretend to go to outer space
78. Find out what floats
79. Make tinfoil boats
80. Play dress-up
81. Play in the rain
82. Play with whip cream
83. Draw our family
84. Make the solar system
85. Play school
86. Fly a kite
87. Play duck duck goose
88. Decorate a bedroom
89. Jump rope
90. Make popcorn
91. Make a fruit pizza
    
92. Write a nice note to a friend
93. Take a bubble bath
94. Go to a bookstore
95. Make funny faces
96. Count or write numbers to 100
97. Jump on a trampoline
98. Take pictures and frame them
99. Find nocturnal animals
100. Do something to be a hero
101. Write the alphabet

Here's what we've done so far:

#66 Run through the sprinklers
#40 Make yogurt popsicles
Today I overheard Alex say that today was the best day ever! I asked him why and he said "Because we had yogurt popsicles and we made that cool thing out of blocks." Too bad play with blocks wasn't on the list because they played with them for over two hours today.