Goodbye to Summer Week!

 

I LOVE family traditions!  This quote by Susan Lieberman pretty much says it all "Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world."

As a mom I want to provide a safe, steady and reliable home life for my kids because I know how absolutely insane this world can be.  Family traditions help me do that.  They help me reconnect with my kids and provide consistency.  We have weekly traditions like game night, family home evening (where we give a spiritual lesson), and Saturday pizza and a movie night. My kids love these and we all look forward to them.

This year we started a new tradition!  My friend Leanne has been doing this with her kids for years and I knew as soon as my kids were old enough I wanted to do it as well.  We called it Goodbye to Summer Week.  The week before school started we planned out a whole week of fun.  We squeezed all the fun we could out of the week so my kids can go back to school with lots of good memories of the summer.  We did a few special things that we rarely do (like go to McDonalds) and we did some of the normal summer activities like swimming.  Here's a look at our week!



 

 Day 1: I gave into the McDonald's thing and we did happy meals but the real highlight was our family hike.  Jaxson wanted to hike a mountain but there aren't any in Michigan so he settled on a forest area.

 

 Day 2: we explored a new park and did some science experiments at home.  They loved the volcano!

 

Day 3: we met up with friends we haven't seen in over a year and explored the Detroit zoo for the first time.

 

Day 4: we took at step back in time and visited Greenfield Village in Dearborn MI.  The village is set in the late 1800s to early 1900 time frame.  We even rode in a Model T car! 

 

 Day 5: we hit the pool where we have a pass and then we went to a Chalk & Chocolate street fair.  You can't beat free chocolate!

 

Day 6:  I planned a fun day at home.  We painted the sidewalk, played in shaving cream and made a lot of mud pies.

It was such a great week! I felt like such a good mom and my kids were over the moon with excitement for each new activity. (Plus they slept like rocks each night.)  This might be a my new favorite tradition!  I can't wait to repeat it next year!

I would love to hear about other family traditions you have!