We are having a lovely summer.

In the past few years, I have become more of a winter person than a summer person, but this year has been excellent. Crazy hot, which is the way I like it, and extremely lazy, which is also how I like it.

I made a conscious decision to do less with the kids this year – less scheduling, fewer chores. There’s been a lot of laying about about watching movies and eating popcorn for lunch.

It’s lovely.

I have taken the kids to a few places. Last week I took the two girls to Pinhey’s Point, which is a heritage home close to us. We’d never been before.

Turns out it is a lovely place to spend a few hours by the river on a hot summer afternoon.

Perhaps you would enjoy a snack of sugar cookies while dipping your feet in the river.

Perhaps you will find just the right stone to skip, and get it to jump a miraculous eight times across the water.

We took in the display they have right now on Camp Woolsey, which is a Girl Guide camp nearby that will be closing in 2020. It was a sad exhibit but I was glad to have seen it with my two guiding girls.

The main house was fascinating – full of period furniture and facts about early life in the Ottawa area.

Afterwards, we went outside where they have a large hill of mown grass, with a stage at the bottom for concerts and shows. The girls decided they’d roll down it, in a throwback to their childhood days.

So they did.

Turns out the grass was burned and stiff with lack of water. When Gal Smiley arrived at the bottom, she showed me her arms, covered with little prick-marks, like a long strip of road rash.

#noregrets, she said.

When Little Miss Sunshine arrived, she agreed, despite the prickles.

But within a few minutes, her arms and legs burst out into hives. She was red and itchy all over.

#someregrets, I said.

We took some Benedryl and headed home. (She had a cool bath in baking soda and was just fine.)

It was still a lovely afternoon.