Hello everyone! Wyatt and I declared a Frog and Toad summer for our summer this year, and we have been really enjoying our slow days. We wanted a summer full of whimsy, of cookies and berries and picnics, swimming and fireflies. And while not all of our plans have worked out, we still have a few more weeks to try again.

First of course, I needed bunting. I love bunting, I would hang it everywhere. So I made a Frog and Toad bunting for our den. It turned out super cute, but it needed something so then we made a strawberry bunting to hang above it. And I love how it all looks.

One of the first things we did was make blackberry bread and watch for fireflies in our yard. I love love love fireflies, they are one of my favorite things about summer! So one night we threw down a blanket on our deck, and had blackberry bread and tea while we just all chilled out, watching for fireflies and listening to the sounds of evening. My bread, sadly, did not really turn out! LOL. It was so wet and I had the rack in the oven set too high, so I had to carve around the very underdone parts to salvage the bits that were done. And the bits that were done were overdone since I was trying to compensate for the underdone! But you live and learn. Lol. Next time I will get it right! The bits that survived tasted good though so that was alright.

We’ve had picnics, one of our favorite things – and also something very Frog and Toad!

We set up under our favorite trees, and it was the breeziest, sunniest day, warm but not too hot, and it was a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours. We draw and talk and paint and read and then when the boy gets restless we pack up and go home. Sometimes we stop for ice cream on the way home as well, which makes it even better.

And of course we went to the kite festival and attempted to fly our own!

We have spent many afternoons and mornings picking out stacks of books to bring home and flip through and read, spooky stories for us both. (Oo I haven’t done a Wyatt book post for a while! I need to rectify that!) We have shopped book sales and thrift stores, looking for small treasures and trinkets. I hope to get a little shelf or two just for our trinkets and treasures, and I am thinking about even adding a box on our little free library for trinket sharing. We have planted seeds and plants, although our gardening skills couldn’t handle this version of summer we are getting. However, our snapdragons and lilies are going like crazy, and they make me happy whenever I see them!

We have met friends for coffee, for Greenfield Village. We went to the art fair. We have gone to the art museum, and to the nature center. Graduation parties and summer reading kick off at the library. And I still have a bunch more for us to do – moth sugar to look for moths, concerts at the zoo, and we still need to make pancakes! Canoeing or a ride in a rowboat, camping, baking a big summer cake whatever that means. More nights spent outside, a fire with friends, board game nights. And maybe a few surprises too. We just have to wait and see!

I hope that however you are spending your summer, you are finding small magical moments that make you smile.