This summer I decided my children needed to be a little less self centered so I came up with the idea of a summer of service. Now I know the idea of summer of service is not original I just thought my kids needed to give back because lets face we are a little spoiled. Our goal was to do one act of service or kindness once a week all summer long. I let the kids come up with some of the ideas and others I gave them a handful of suggestions and let them choose which one we should do.
week 1= we rode our bikes to the ice cream shop while picking up trash along the trail. This was also Shelby's 1st bike ride. She did so well I was really impressed. She stayed right beside me the entire time. I had nightmares of her running in front of the bikes and causing all kinds of harm but she was amazing.
Week 2= We headed over to the local dog pound to walk the dogs, give them some exercise, and getting them used to people and walking on a leash. We decided to stick with the big dogs because people always want the little ones. They were all pretty good dogs and the kids LOVED this activity. They wanted to do it again and again. We walked every dog they had making sure to take the extra active ones into the fenced area to let them run and play. We fell in love with this lab named Marigold, she was such a sweet thing I can't imagine why anyone would have given her up.
Week 3 =we set up a time with an assisted living facility to come and play music and cards with the residents. I had the inspiration to do this and on that same day I found a post on facebook asking for people to come spend time with residents at this facility. I just knew this was what we were supposed to do. We all played our instruments which include piano, base clarinet, and ukulele. During our music we gained the attention of one resident who brought out his diggerydoo. We talked music for a bit and then played cards with him. He was fairly young and happy to have someone to visit him. During our card game my boys were their typical selves. At first I was embarrassed that they were behaving like boys but our new friend mentioned how much he missed days like this with people like us. He came from a large family and now no one is able to come visit. He felt like he was back with his family with us being there playing cards and just being a normal family. After some reflection as to why we drove all the way down to Provo to do this at this facility I was filled with the Spirit telling me that our new friend needed us and prayed for us to come. Maybe not us specifically but he needed some normalcy of a family and to know that God cared for him. My kids dragged their feet at first with this suggestion but after the whole experience they were happy they went and asked to do it again.
Week 4= This was going to be a fun one. We went to the dollar store and bought like 50 bubbles. we printed off the little note that said Free Bubbles please enjoy this random act of kindness. Then we went to 2 different parks and hid them around like Easter eggs. I let the kids stand back and watch at the second park to see how the reaction to the found bubbles would be. My kids weren't allowed to let the new owners know they were the gifters but they could still see the smiles on the faces. There happened to be an entire preschool group at the park that day. Some kids found multiple bubbles but then gave the extra away to other kids. It was cute to see the goodness spread.
week 5= This week we offered FREE bike repair. I put a blast out to the neighborhood letting everyone know a head of time that we would offer free bike repair to anyone who could bring their bike to us. As long as it was minor things, we fixed many a tires including putting in new tubes if needed, adjusted some brakes and training wheels, tightening up seats handlebars and kickstands. It was a simple thing but they learned the value of work and the skills to fix things.
week 6= This was hands down the favorite of all favorite summer of service activities. We decided to have a spin on a lemonade stand. We made 2 coolers full of lemonade. One was pink and one was yellow then we had another cooler full of Popsicles. We bought 100 Popsicles. we carted everything down to the local splash pad that is blocks away from our house. We had made signs saying Free Lemonade and Popsicles please enjoy our random act of kindness. They came in droves. Everyone was so appreciative and my boys got to see the fruit of their labors with such positive feedback it helped them to see what joy they could bring. Many of the adults kept asking why we were doing this. We explained our summer of service to them and they were all impressed. Many taking our picture to share our good deed. Of all our acts of service I wanted to impress on my children that we can do good without recognition but to do good because it was the right thing to do. While all of this is exemplary it was good for them to finally get some recognition of their good deeds. It boosted them up, giving them the desire to do more good deeds.
week 7= this turned out to be the most work of all the weeks of service. We dog sat my mom's dog Clark and babysat my sisters kids. While it was just typical dog and child care and not very exciting it rounded up our summer of service.
I would say the great thing that came about from my summer of service idea is that it got my children in the mindset of serving. Now they are often looking for ways they could be of service. I wanted them to see that it doesn't always have to be a big act of service to make an impact but its the simple day to day things that they can do that help make this world and them better. If everyone could do just a little everyday think of how wonderful things could be. They are already talking about next summer service ideas.
When school started Brennen told me he wanted to make his classroom happy with his service so he started asking his classmates about their favorite thins and then he draws them a picture about it. I'm counting this as a mom win. Once in a while I get something right and it sticks.
Peter wanted a Minecraft birthday this year. You know me I can't do the traditional birthday party where I buy decorations and play the same games over and over. I came up with a few fun ideas for this party. First things first I ordered some inflatable pic axes for the kids, because you have to have a pic axe to mine your materials. 
I have a lot of new construction around my neighborhood I scavenged some scrap wood and cut it up into little blocks. I had my helper hide the blocks all around the backyard before the party. When it was time I gave each boy a paper bag and told them to go "mine" their blocks. This was like an Easter egg hunt and the boys had such a great time with it. They didn't want it to end. Once they found enough materials we headed inside to build our structures. I cut up some foam core in square that they built their structures on anyway they wanted. Once they had it layed out how they wanted we used wood glue to glue it in place. Then they got to paint them. This activity took up most of the time and they were all happy to build their own thing in their own style. They were more surprised when they learned they got to take home their creations. While the glue was drying we sang happy birthday and ate the cake. Can I just say that this cake was the easiest cake I've ever made. Thanks be to Minecraft that is all squares. You can see by the look on Peter's face he was thrilled with it.
