Summer fun

941. That is the number of photos I took during our summer staycation. It took me two nights to edit that down to about half, and then some more to pick a few to show you guys.

With the new garden and the first time ever we had to take our vacation during the school holidays, we ended up staying at home. And we had the most gorgeous weather one could imagine. The kids had a blast, and while we didn't get to sit around and relax much, it did feel so good not to look at the watch and stick to a strict schedule for two weeks. The kids went to bed when it got dark (which is way past 9pm here), we had dinner when we were hungry and got out of bed when we had slept long enough.

Bliss.

Still lots of garden projects, a fence and more weeds than I can count, but also lots of pure and simple summer fun.

I love that my boys are still perfectly happy with the simple things. Here's what we did:

Starting out with the kiddie pool. Which got very warm after a few hours. Little brother didn't care though.

Grilling bread on a stick over the new fire pit. I think by now I can make the dough in my sleep.

Having the neighbors and kids over for grilling marshmallows.

Decided we need a bigger pool and finally went and bought one of those incredibly ugly blue blow-up things. Not pretty, but sooooo much fun!

With unusually hot and sunny weather here, it was so worth it. Big brother could have stayed in that thing all day.

Tractor pulling events are a must around here. This is the season's first, and the boys are quite the experts by now.

Taking a day trip to a local museum. I wish we had taken more of those trips, but with some work creeping into the staycation, plus garden projects, summer flu and the heat, we often opted for just staying in the pool.

This is an old schoolhouse. What a far cry from today's fully digital, touch-screen whiteboards! Or take the school's restroom...

The biggest attraction however, was the museum cat.

Harvesting radishes. Big brother did that as a school project and we ended up planting the seedlings into the new garden.

Little brother also picked his radishes, though he didn't really like eating them.

The harvest.

They looked a little wonky from replanting the fairly big seedlings, but they still did taste good. Can't wait to start next year's crop.

Meanwhile, there are always ice cream sandwiches...

Now it's back to work and the weather has also cooled off somewhat. But despite all the work, I think we could do another staycation. I'm sure a full service, all inclusive hotel would have been less work, but the kids had so much fun just enjoying their home and the neighbor kids, all without school, schedules, kindergarten or homework. 

How has your summer been?

Cheers,

Swenja