Well, it's that time of the year again, folks! School will be over for my girls on June 14 and we will run headfirst into summer (although today's heat feels like it ran headfirst into me!) For those of you who are new to this blog this summer, I write about cheap, sometimes educational, and hopefully fun activities I do with my 2 girls, ages 12 and almost 6 during the summertime.

J, my 12 year old, is finishing 6th grade. This will complete her first year in middle school. Overall, she's had a very good experience, for which I'm very thankful. She's involved in school band, chorus, and show choir. She also studies ballet and jazz dance. She's very into ballet right now, and drooling to get her pointe shoes (I am not drooling over the cost of the shoes and the associated foot problems, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). She enjoys reading and cooking, an important skill for her because she has a severe food allergy.

K is my soon to be 6 year old. She's finishing kindergarten, which is hard for me to believe. She will tease me by saying, "What's happening to your baby, mama?", something I say to her as I realize how quickly she is growing. She also takes ballet class and will be in her first dance recital this weekend! She loves arts and crafts, coloring, reading books, playing outside, and family games. She is a true 'girly' girl: her favorite colors are pink and purple, and she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up.

I almost hesitate to blog about our plans for the summer, because I know that we won't get to do some of the things I list. I certainly don't want to disappoint anyone out there! Nevertheless, here's the list: learn to play the piano with Jon Schmidt, book reviews and regular trips to the library, cooking lots of peanut free recipies, bowling, re-painting J's room (since Hannah Montana is passe for this age), crafts at Lancaster Creative Reuse, Wii game reviews, summer dance classes, picking strawberries, gaining financial peace for kids, and more. We'll also try to keep our school skills with math and science current.

If you have any suggestions for us, please leave me a comment or a message on LancMoms! I would love to hear from readers about suggestions, successes and disappointments in their summer activities. I try to keep the activities as inexpensive as possible, with a few splurges here and there. Hey, everyone's on a tight budget these days--we're certainly no exception to that.

One of the things I learned from last summer's experiences is to not try to plan too much. Sometimes the spontaneous things are even better than the big plans. So relax and enjoy the time with your kids--I'm sure your babies are growing as fast as mine are. We hope to see some of you on our adventures this summer!