It's not over yet,

Home made popsicles. Fresh picked raspberries
in a popsicle mold covered in fruit juice and frozen
for a special treat on a super hot day.

We're headed into the last week of summer vacation, we have school supplies nearly checked off our list, just tissues, glue sticks and a box of watercolour paints left, well also shoes; but then we are ready and excited about heading into Grade 1.

The Peanut spent this summer participating in the Library's summer reading program, reading books to me as well as vice versa. We've over shot the 50 days of required reading, and in that time we've finished the Hobbit and started on the Harry Potter Series, (me reading to her, currently we are on book 2) as well as a stack of picture books, poetry books, information books and Easy Reader books (The Peanut reading to me, or alternating pages between us). We'll be handing in her reading club form at the end of this week and we'll be keeping on with the reading. It's a lovely way to have some Peanut and me time every day. So with the end of summer looming


I'm determined to squeeze every last second possible out of summer except for those two days of rain they're predicting...

Summer started off a little cool and damp. the Peanut's Birthday party was threatened with rain. Our plans to fill the backyard with boxes and let the kids play with and in them was thrown out the window when the rain continued to fall right up the moment that all our friends arrived. Instead of boxes our friends enjoyed the new back yard swings, the jump rope, hula hoop and sand box. They ate up all of our home made ice cream cake and fresh cut veggies.

Even without the boxes it was a lot of fun and we'll revisit the box idea next summer. Perhaps for the Bean's 1/2 birthday extravaganza. For goody bags I made each child a hand drawn paper doll that looked just like her or him and included a few sheets of clothes for them to decorate and colour. In the rush to get them all done I forgot to photograph the finished dolls but I have plans to make more.

After the birthday party rumpus we hit the Vancouver Jazz festival where the Bean enjoyed roaming free through the crowds, followed closely by either the husband or me. The Peanut enjoyed the music and blew bubbles and crawled over some of the public art in front of the court house.  It's been a few years since we last went to the Jazz Festival. The last time we attempted was the day the wheel axle broke on our car and the trip was aborted in favour of getting the car towed and  calming our nerves.

the addition of a swing set to our back yard has kept both girls busy this summer. The Peanut loves to swing and the Bean has figured out how to get her feet swung around to go down the slide, she requires a little aid to climb the ladder but that's coming (all Gods please help me) The first half of the summer in our back yard was full of sandbox play, Side walk chalk, slip and slide and sprinkler fun. Once the heat set in sprinkler fun was the best way to keep cool without going too far from home using too much energy getting back home after having fun. I loved watching my girls play together and mostly get along.

 

When we did head out; we hit the beach

Visited the wading pool at the playground:

waded in the water feature at the PNE grounds:


 

Hit the playground, where we spent the bulk of some visits trying to contain the Bean, who would try to play in traffic if given the chance:

We managed to check off almost all of our summer Must Do List,  including a back yard camp out complete with s'mores and flashlights. and in between we filled out days with lots of silliness and even a few timeless moments.

Our summer wasn't all fun and happiness. We lost a family member, and are still reeling from that. The Peanut is still trying to wrap her mind around saying good bye to her little cousin and we've had numerous conversations about death and I see more in our future. It's one thing to say good bye to a great Granny who has had a full life and yet another thing to have to say goodbye to a baby who is close in age to your baby sister. We're working on making the idea of death seem (to paraphrase Dumbledore from book one:) like another great adventure. Something that should not be frightening because everyone does it, hopefully after living a life full of love and adventures.

So anyway, I've not posted even a fraction of what we've done this summer. I may post more pictures later or I might not. Life flies by on you and my next post might just be full of first day of school things or perhaps a look into what I started on my birthday and am so excited about that I'm itching to get back to it every day...

How did you spend your summer vacation? Did you do anything extraordinary or was it a summer just like a summer should be?