Okay, be up front with me now. There’s some sort of rift in the space-time continuum, and time has been cut in half, right? It’s some sort of NASA secret I’m sure, but I’m on to them. There’s just no possible other explanation for how fast June is flying by.

When the kids were really little, it used to take us at least an hour to get out of the house, between making sure everyone had peed and eaten and had packed a small suitcase of snacks and activities. I used to dream about how much more time we’d have on our hands once the kids were old enough to put on their own jackets and shoes and get themselves ready.

And yes it’s true, it now takes us about 10 minutes to get out the door, but the problem now is that we are going out the door about 16 times a day, it seems, between soccer and swimming lessons and end-of-year parties and me rushing, rushing, rushing to get as many errands done as possible before I’m a full-time mom to three kids for eight weeks, GAH.

So all this is to say that the Summer! Of! Awesome! is starting in less than three weeks, and when I really think about that I have a small heart attack as it seems impossibly close, and I’m so woefully unprepared, including getting this post up about a month too late. DOUBLE GAH.

Last year I posted a comprehensive list of everything I had ever once remotely considered booking for the Summer of Awesome, but this year I am going to cheat and say that if you are looking for ideas, you can check out my ongoing activities list, and also Andrea’s all-encompassing Ottawa Bucket List.

Also, if you’re looking to track events over the course of the summer, you can check my Facebook page for weekly updates – I usually update it sometime on Monday with the weekend’s events. I’d also recommend my new favourite Ottawa blog, Ottawa Rickshaws, which is written by those guys who run around the market with rickshaws but is seriously, a cute and funny and super informative blog about what’s cool and hip and happening in downtown Ottawa. Plus, there’s always OttawaStart and its accompanying blog which is chock full of Ottawa info and events listings, and everyone should read it.

So! All that said, here’s our list of what we’ll be exploring for summer 2013.

(Failing the total collapse of the space-time continuum and the earth being swallowed up by the resulting singularity, which I have not ruled out.)

Cost Effective

RCMP Musical Ride
Canada Day on Parliament Hill – normally I avoid the hill like the plague, but the combined forces of Carly Rae Jepson AND Metric AND Chris FREAKING Hadfield have rendered me powerless to resist
Splash Pad Park
Museum of Nature (free to us as we are members) – specifically to see the Canadian Wildlife Photography Winners, which are on display until July 7
Museum of Agriculture and Food (free to us as we are members) – specifically for the Little Miss’ birthday party in July, whoo hoo
Museum of Aviation (free to us as we are members, are we members of every museum?? Yes, yes we are.) – specifically to see the Star Wars exhibit, which we will actually be visiting TWICE, and we’ve already seen it once in Montreal as well, so that should tell you how awesome it is
Storytime at Rideau Hall
Cruise Night (Tuesdays) at Hazeldean Mall
LEGO Exhibit at the Danish Embassy – anyone been to this yet? How was it?
A Company of Fools production of The Merry Wives of Windsor – these are performed in parks all across the city, and are pay-what-you-can; see the website for the full schedule
Chinatown Day Trip – as detailed by Andrea’s blog post, we went last year and the kids LOVED it
Picnic on Bate Island
Diefenbunker
Fortissimo on Parliament Hill – if the kids are perky enough, we’ll stay for Mosaika too

Pricier Outings

Mini Golf Gardens
Skyzone Ottawa
Altitude Gym Clip and Climb
Mont Cascades
Saunders Farm – a can’t miss tradition!
Karter’s Korner – possibly only with Gal Smiley, as she’s the big go-karter around here
Movie Theatre – to see Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 for sure; The Smurfs 2 OVER MY DEAD BODY
Upper Canada Village – special events include Battle of Crysler’s Farm Reenactment on July 13/14, Carriage Riding Weekend August 17/18, and Horse Lovers Weekend on the Labour Day Weekend
Treats at Menchie’s – they always have at least one milk-free sorbet on tap, although it is a bit of a cross-contamination nightmare there; if you’re worried about allergies but would love to take the family for ice cream, consider Thimblecakes’ new cafe in Barrhaven, which serves coconut milk ice cream and sorbets

Farther Afield

Toronto Zoo – we have a panda-obsessed eight-year-old in the house and are hoping to find time to get down to Toronto and see the pandas this summer
PEI – and oh yeah, in addition to all this, we’ll be driving out to PEI for a week. I’m going to need all of September just to recover from the summer!

Heck, I’ll probably need most of next week just to recover from this post. Happy summering, everyone!