Well, this summer had a wild surprise in store for the Jedda household. Three of the four children in our home have been told by their doctors that they should not be outdoors this summer. Not part of the summer, but the whole summer. I was astonished. What would this mean for all of our summer plans? How would I manage to keep my children active and inside all summer? Although I don't have all of the answers, I do believe we are beginning to figure it out.

This week we have adjusted some of our summer bucket list so that we could still do the activities we had planned, but indoors instead. We have had a fashion show as well as a tea party. We have had guests over and even camped in the living room. We have played many games and watched many movies, but still manage to keep a pretty good schedule. My living room has been a Nerf battle zone as well as a crazy dance studio. We even had a teddy bear picnic.

Next week we are planning a game of marker tag and a treasure hunt. I am still working on what exactly the treasure is going to be, but I am making the cards up tomorrow that will lead the children to the treasure. The best part is they will have to work together to make it to the treasure. I guess even though we can't go outside, we can still have a blast and enjoy each other's company.

Well, I should go for now. We have company coming over tomorrow and will need to be well rested. I hope you all a wonderful summer and if you have any ideas for indoor activities we would love to hear them. I am pulling at straws here and could really use some help coming up with other things to do with my children.

TTFN,

Dawn

Summer Fun

So we have had a very busy summer so far, but we have been able to stop and enjoy the weather for a little while.  I was blessed with the chance to have five of my nephews over for a weekend.  That was a blast.  I was so busy that I wasn't able to think about anything else.  So for that weekend I had nine children ages ranging from two in a half to fifteen.  It is amazing how well all of the kids get along and how very different they all are.  I am very much looking forward to having them over again soon.

One afternoon we set up a bubble station.  I used an old juice dispenser and made up a batch of bubbles in it.  This makes it easy for the kids to refill their bubbles when ever they need them.  I did manage to get a couple of good pictures to share.

We also put a giant blue tarp in the middle of the yard with the intentions of using it as a slip 'n' slide...that didn't work out, so we used it for a water wrestling mat instead.  We ran our hose over it and the kids began to wrestle.  It was awesome, the water made the mat slippery and it created a wonderful outlet for the children to play rough.

We have had an array of issues this year so this summer we decided to let loose and enjoy every minute we can.  With my husband deployed, the kids and I had to decide whether we wanted to mope around the house or get together a list of all the off the wall things we wanted to do and take as many pictures as we can to send them to their dad in his care packages.

In May I was able to capture pictures of my son mowing the lawn in a red cape.  He was very much enjoying himself and was belting out the Superman theme song.  So of course, the pictures were printed and sent to his father.  It is the little things that we do that our soldiers abroad miss the most.  Our goal is to try and include him in as many of these little moments as possible.  He called two days ago and our youngest daughter took the phone outside and played with daddy and the new bubble station out front.  He was calling on a video chat so he was trying to interact with her as much as he could.  He even blew into the phone.  She thought that was awesome and so did I.  Every little moment in a child's life is special, so there is no way we are going to leave daddy out.

Well, I guess I should get some sleep...we have another long day tomorrow.  If you guys want to share your summer plans, we would love to hear about them or ever see them.

Thanks for your time,
Dawn