Simple, Sweet, Summer of Fun!

Simple, Sweet, Summer of FUN! Keeping summer break easy – surviving pregnancy during the summer heat!

Being pregnant during South Georgia summer is not the easiest thing in the world!

Especially when you have two children to entertain!

Keeping a Summer Routine

I made a list at the start of summer of things I wanted to be sure to do with the kids and I then spread those things out so we would have something fun to do about once a week or so.

I tried to have a balance of staying home and being on a “summer schedule” and also going out and doing fun things.

I’m big about keeping my kids on a routine and summer time is no different!

On days we were home we would eat breakfast, have free play, do a craft or some other together activity, then the kids would have sibling room time in the playroom together, video time, lunch, pool time, then naps!

It all flowed very well and gave us plenty to do while having fun 🙂

I saw a lot of people on social media doing posts every single day about their fun daily things.

I didn’t feel any pressure to keep up with that! I think I did a great job of providing my kids with simple, fun summer memories without overdoing it myself 🙂 

Since none of the things we did were really enough to fill an entire post, I thought I’d combo it all in a big one!

Craft Time

We spent a LOT of mornings doing crafts. I went to Hobby Lobby early in the summer and stocked up on some fun things to do. Kye loves doing art stuff and Britt loves doing anything Kye does 😉

Play-Dough Fun

Play dough is another big favorite!

My new trick is to give them each a cookie sheet to play on…keeps the mess to a minimum. Britt prefers play dough over drawing whereas Kye prefers the crafts. 

Britt always makes hers into “cookies”

And Kye makes “snakes”

—-> Be sure to read this post from Team Cartwright for a super fun ICE CREAM play dough activity!

Short Visits with Others

When Carter was born I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him and Casey.

I knew once “Leo” came I wouldn’t be as flexible so I wanted to be there for Casey as much as I could when I still could be!

We had a good system going where the kids and I would pack lunch and take a movie to Casey’s house!

It worked out great and allowed them some variety to being stuck at home too!

Britt loves checking the monitor 🙂

Pregnancy Check-Ups

I also had a LOT of appointments at the obgyn over the summer.

Since both kids loved hearing “Leo’s” heartbeat I wanted to make sure they could go to as many of the appointments with me as possible.

Once internal checks started…the kids stopped going though!

Def wouldn’t want them there for that.

They both were excellent in the waiting room and their little notepads and pencils kept them nice and quiet and entertained!

Staying Active Inside

One of the days that Jolee came to watch the kids they invented a new game with their bounce balls.

Basically they bounce around the house like crazy people and even crash into each other.

I had a feeling this game would create lots of fighting…but instead, it turned into their favorite thing to play this summer.

Constant laughter fills the air when they are bouncing around the house…so mama now totally loves this game 😉

One of the items I ordered for “Leo’s” nursery came wrapped up in a ton of bubble wrap.

I saved it and tucked it away for a day when I needed something for the kids to do.

Who would think a simple piece of bubble wrap could provide days worth of fun?!?!

I love that they are old enough now to invent little games together and they had some system with the bubble wrap that kept them entertained!

He would make these block towers then they’d bounce on the bubble wrap and knock the towers over haha

Bath Time Fun

Zach had a good bit of traveling to do this summer. Even though it was tough playing “single mom” while super pregnant, I supported the traveling!

I’d rather him travel when I only had two kids to handle rather than three 😉

One way I kept my sanity during those trips was to let the kids have special treat baths in my bath tub.

I very, very rarely do bubble baths (I was always very sensitive as a little girl to them so I am cautious about Britt) but having the bubbles made the bath even more fun and special!

Simple Fun at the Car Wash

Both kids also LOVE going through the car wash at the gas station. I try to keep the van as clean as I can and will go through it from time to time. It’s always a treat!

Keep Cool Treats!

Back for Britt’s first birthday we bought a cool old fashioned snow cone machine.

Random fact but NOWHERE sells snow cone syrup in the offseason!??!

Like I cannot ever find it!

Once summer rolled around I saw some at Target and stocked UP!

Now we can have snow cones anytime we want, no matter what the season 😉

The kids and I busted that thing out one day and it was the perfect after lunch treat!

Her hair is SO beautiful!

Another must for summer fun is popsicles!

We have had the SAME box of these things in our freezer since before Kye was born haha.

These totally take me back to my childhood and I had to indulge in the memory 😉 Yellow was always my fav!

And you KNOW you totally waited and let it melt so you could drink the leftovers at the end!

Once day after golf camp I surprised the kids with a stop at Brusters.

I’ve had a couple gift cards to there for years now and figured, why not?

I knew once the baby came that my runs for ice cream would be done for awhile!

Gotta live it up while you can!

What was SO awesome was that Kye is FINALLY too tall for the free kid ice cream cone!!!

It’s the first time I can ever remember being HAPPY to spend money haha!!!

Britt chowed down and Kye said he wanted to make his last and enjoy it

Burning off those calories 😉

Movie Time Activities

I don’t like to do a lot of movie watching.

The kids typically have a 20-40 min video time before lunch so I can get their lunch ready.

But we did have plenty of days this summer where we watched more movies than normal.

And I know with nursing a newborn there will probably be many more movie times to come!

One of the fun things I found for us to do was to decorate mugs.

The mugs were, legit, 89 cents at Hobby Lobby!

It’s another thing that brought back memories of my childhood and it was a fun project that resulted in having something to keep at the end! 

Of course we used the mugs as snack cups for movie time!

I tried to keep movie days as still “fun days” and tried to mix it up when I could.

Like how about making a pallet on the floor to watch the movie rather than watching on the couch?

Totally counts as a fun thing to do right? 😉

I love how close they sit on the couch together 🙂

Movie watching in sleeping bags…such variety 😉

Summer Swim Sessions

Of course the FAVORITE thing to do this summer was SWIM!

The kids could have swam all day every day and never gotten tired of it!

I tried to take them at least a couple of times a week and I’m so thankful for our back yard pool.

It’s great that we don’t have to load up and go anywhere to be able to enjoy the water! 

Kye is at a point now where he can do his own thing.

Of course I still watch him, but I don’t have to actively be involved in his swimming what-so-ever.

His favorite thing this summer has been swimming across the entire pool and diving down for rings.

He can dive all the way to the bottom of the deep end and get a ring then bring it back up!

I love that our survival swim lessons really pay off!

Britt really stuck to the stairs a lot in the beginning of summer, but by the end she turned into a little fish.

She loves to jump off the steps and swim to me then swim back. She says she’s “practicing” 🙂 

Leo loved the pool too!

And Daddy has been their favorite pool partner when he’s home! He’s a little more wild than Mommy 😉

We have always let Kye do the typical boy thing and tee tee outside.

It is HILARIOUS that Britt totally copies him haha.

He will go tee tee in the grass and she will run right over beside him and go too (and yes, I blurred out anything inappropriate!)

So now if she says she has to go potty I just let her go to the grass 😉

Library Outings

One fun thing I tried to do this summer was visit our library.

They do different story times and we have been in the past and enjoyed them.

I made a playdate with Robyn to meet up there together.

We showed up and saw this sign! UGH. So aggravated!

I mean who cancels story time for the entire summer?

And why would they not have that posted up on their Facebook page or website?!?!

Several other moms were there too and were equally annoyed.

We didn’t even check out any books because I was worried about how we’d be able to return them if/when Leo arrived!

Summer Sports

Last summer Zach and Jordan started up a men’s basketball league.

It is basically a thorn in mine and Casey’s sides haha.

This year they did it again and tried to schedule it a little better for us.

They did it on Tuesday nights rather than Mondays (helllllo Mondays are sacred for Bachelorette!) and they made sure the league ended before I was due with Leo.

They also had the games start later in the evening so it wasn’t as bad as last summer was at least!

One of the nights that they played an early game I packed the kids dinner and we went to watch Daddy in action.

Kye was SO excited and really paid attention to the entire game and I know it meant a lot to Zach for us to be there.

Naturally it brought back so many memories of watching Zach play football! I wish the kids could have seen him then 🙂

We won!

And in case you were wondering…Zach and Jordan’s team won the championship last year and they won it again this year! Thankful we don’t have to keep that trophy at our house!!!

Movie Theater Outings

Our local movie theater does summer movies for kids where admission is just $1 and they have popcorn for $1.

Unfortunately, the movies they show aren’t really the best ones for kids, in my opinion.

I didn’t plan to actually take the kids to any of them this year because I didn’t like the content of the movies but I had an obgyn visit and was mega close to the end of pregnancy so I thought it was a good way to have something to do and stay cool!

I researched the movie and it wasn’t too bad (it was something about aliens…Escape from Area 51 maybe?!?!) so we gave it a go!

When we left Kye actually summed up the whole movie and somehow made it all relate to Jesus which made me proud 😉

Local Water Park Adventures

I am REALLY proud of myself for how much we went and did this summer!

I knew a summer pregnancy would be difficult but I didn’t let it slow us down one bit and we made SO MANY great memories.

We actually probably had more fun this summer than any other one before!

My most proud super mom activity of the summer? Wild Adventures. By myself. 9 months pregnant. With two kids.

I mean I still can’t believe we survived this!!! Not only did we survive…but we had a BLAST!!!

When we first walked in we saw a crocodile!!! Britt was SUPER pumped!

She was so happy!

Britt and I surprised Kye at golf camp.

When we picked him up he asked why we were wearing our bathing suits and Britt said “Wild Adventures” And Kye got upset b/c he thought she meant we had already gone to Wild Adventures.

Once we told him we were leaving golf camp and then going to Wild Adventures he got SO excited.

Like tears in his eyes pumped.

He said it was super fun being surprised and asked me to please surprise him with stuff more haha.

We got there and headed straight for the splash park.

There is a big kid play area with slides and such.

It worked out perfect because I told Kye to pick one half of the play area to play in.

Britt and I then played in the water by that area.

Then we switched and did the other half. Britt had no desire to slide and just wanted to “swim” in the water.

So she was happy and I could easily keep an eye on him. It all went so smoothly!

And we packed lunch!

The hardest part of the trip out there was the walk to and from the Splash Park.

If you’re local then you KNOW it’s a BEAST of a haul.

Even not pregnant!

I just took my time walking back and it ended up taking us roughly 40 min from the time we left the splash area to the time we finally got to the car.

At 9 months pregnant I only had one speed: SLLLLLOW.

I also decided to stop at the halfway point for a break.

I broke down and bought us a treat to share.

They wanted $5.99 for a 22 oz slushie. Seriously!!!

Their prices on food are way higher than even Disney!

I did break down and spend $4 on cotton candy but at least it was a massive bag!  

We sat for a little while to rest and enjoy! Being there solo I knew I couldn’t handle the double stroller so Kye had to walk and he was even worn out!

I will never forget the memories made with my sweet children over this summer.

I know next summer we will be home bound a LOT. “Leo” will still be having a morning nap so we will have to stick close to home.

While being pregnant during the summer was hard, I’m thankful that the older kids will only have to sacrifice one summer rather than having to sacrifice two if I’d had the baby prior to summer! 

You can read more on simple summer activities that are cheap or FREE here!