Summer Update #1

Hey, guys! Now that summer's well under way (can anyone else not believe that July 4th has come and gone?!), I thought it'd be nice to grab a reminder of some of the fun we hope to undertake this year.

So, there's some stuff I'm super excited to have crossed off, and some stuff that we've got in the works. Let's chat, shall we? First, what's complete.

#6 - My sister decided to have a garage sale earlier in June, so I happily offered to help out if I could bring stuff to sell. We didn't make a ton, but it was more than we would've made by donating everything. Plus, we dropped everything off at the Salvation Army right after the sale so that we didn't have that "dump the stuff in the cellar/garage and forget about it" moment. That's never a good moment when you discover all the crap stuff months later. So, to have the extra space in our basement and to have the garage cleaned? Priceless.

#7 - As you know, I'm working on our garden. Since it's planted and we're to the "tend to it" phase, I'm calling this one done. I may move around the strawberries/herbs or try some new ones to see if I can get them going a little better. Otherwise, our netting seems to be working to keep the kitties out, and our lettuce is going great (and, considering it was all planted at once, it's awesomesauce that it's growing to varying heights -- they're not all ready at once!). Actually, I finally "harvested" some lettuce recently, so yay! 

Now, for the stuff we've got in the works! 

#2 - Man, if I don't have stuff underway for buddy's second birthday, I'd be in trouble! It IS this Sunday, after all. So, our closest family members received their invitations (it's going to be a small, fun shindig this year; like 17ish people), and I've got a menu drawn up. 

It's a mid-afternoon get-together, so we're just doing snacks and cake. We already bought water, soda, and organic juice boxes, as well as bags of pretzels and two kinds of non-GMO popcorn. A little later this week I'll pick up some fruit and veggies to cut up and the makings for some dip (any "real food" fruit or veg dip recipes are welcome! Pinterest has been a pain on this search). Oh, and of course there's the cake. Thinking of doing a lemon cake (again, suggestions for a fluffy, non-box mix recipe are welcome! They all sound too dense), maybe with organic cream cheese frosting. :-D 

Now, if only the weather would cooperate...

#3 - Okay. This is one reason my post is a day late. My sis and I had planned on taking our munchkins to our zoo, but (again) the weather had other ideas. Luckily, she knew of a newer indoor play place for all ages of kids (it was, indeed, a blast! And super clean, whew). It just means we'll have to plan another trip there sometime this summer. We'll probably take a quick family trip there when the weather looks nice again, too, so I have high hopes!

#4 - Yay! We have our trip booked! I'll just be sharing the location here; we're not keen on letting folks know when our house will be unoccupied. So, I'm sure some of you guessed it, but we'll be swinging back to Massachusetts -- starting in the east near Concord and winding our way back to spend more time with some friends, with some other adventures along the way. Can't wait to go, and can't wait to share how we handle keeping a toddler and two grown-ups happy along the way!

I'm in the earlier processes of a couple of other list items (like puttering), so I hope to be back with another update soon...and it BETTER say "we went to the zoo!" in it. ;-)

How's your summer going? Any great plans or list-checking?