Summer started for us on the 14 June.  School finished at noon and we headed out for lunch and ice cream to celebrate.  180 days of the school year complete and I think we were all ready for a change in routine, a break from the school run and time to just be.

I’m a planner and although I had a number of things scheduled into the calendar for the first part of the summer vacation, I had purposefully kept some days empty and mornings with slow beginnings.  We are a family of doers, so having something planned in the day tends to lead to happier outcomes, but I also love my sleep and at some point the kitchen sink needs emptying and the laundry tackling.

I spent many mornings during the school year in battle mode – the morning challenge of getting out of the house on time and beating the traffic to school.  We were mostly successful (only a couple of tardy marks) but it wasn’t always a happy way to start the day.  So this summer I have accepted that in general we will be late by at least ten minutes for whatever it is we are doing, but we will get there.  Because it is summer and it is hot and everything can just slow down and we can take our foot off of the accelerator.

As this is our last Californian summer we have tried to spend time with some of the families we have become close to.  Days hiking, trips to the local water park, the beach, the zoo.  Pool play dates, park dates along with bowling, the cinema and the library.

As a family we have sat together as I have read aloud the story of the BFG.  With the 5 year old not wanting Daddy to miss out when he was away one evening, so we switched books so that we all heard every chapter.  Then we went to see the new film at the cinema and shared an enormous ‘scrumdiddlyumptious’ bucket of popcorn.

This season the local water park has opened up for our 5 year old as the magic height has been reached to be allowed access to a big slide.  A slide of four tubes that is up a tower of matching height to a three storey building.  Where you enter a dark tube head first, laid on a mat with handles at the front and disappear around the side of the tower twisting and turning until you emerge in a flume alongside the other three tube riders.  Just carrying the mat up the tower is a challenge let alone making the decision to ride.

After an extended period of time at the top of the tower, our 5 year old conquered his nerves and took the plunge.  He is now hooked and thinks the slide is awesome!

Soon we will be heading to the UK for the next part of our summer holidays.  A period of time to connect with family and friends back home.  So although we have had five weeks of summer so far, the summer still stretches out ahead of us.