Holy crap where did summer go? Sorry I fell of the face of the earth for a minute. We took last week off to really soak the last bit of summer in. I took time off work, the blog, and even a break from our summer homeschool sessions. We went swimming. We hit the beach and stayed at a beautiful hotel (more on that later). And we enjoyed watching the Olympics together. The summer we had is not quite like the summers I remember having growing up.

My parents were both very busy, so I spent a lot of time playing with my sister and when my parents were home–neighborhood kids. I remember when we got our first gaming system. It was a Nintendo. I loved Duck Hunt and Super Mario. Then I felt like a cool kid when we upgraded to Sega.

All summer I’d play the handful of games we had. Those were the days where we’d run to Blockbuster to rent a new game for a week. And one year my mom even signed up for the Sega channel, so we had all kind of games to play.

I spent a good amount of time inside playing video games during my summer breaks, until I became obsessed with reading. Then we’d go to the library and I’d check out a stack of Sweet Valley High books and devour them by the next week.

I’ve been holding off on buying a gaming system at my house. I passed on the new PlayStations and Xboxes, even the Disney Infinity games. The closest thing we have is an Apple TV, which can work like a wii for some games, and of course iPad games, which I approve and regulate.

I’ve always been intrigued by the games that have some kind of movement involved. I’m convinced I burned all kinds of calories playing Dance Central on the Xbox Kinect at my mom’s house. That was something I could get behind.

Springfree Trampoline reached out to me a couple months ago and asked if we’d like to try one of their trampolines and a new interactive game. I knew if I said no my kids would probably never let me live that down.

I didn’t think a trampoline would really fit in our backyard but the large oval shape is perfect to fit on our annoyingly slanted yard. They’re deemed the world’s safest trampoline and now you can add on an interactive component called Tgoma. (It stands for Take Gaming Outside and Make them Active).

I connected my iPad mini using bluetooth, and Lil’ J helped me choose a few games to download for her and her brother. Once you select the game to play you become the controller and bounce where the characters are on the screen. It sounds complicated but my 3 and 6 year old figured it out pretty quick.  They like “Whatzat?” the most right now which has animal and vehicle sounds play when you jump on different spots on the trampoline. I like Alien Stomp which is like a life-size version of whack a mole. Here’s a video so you can see it in action.

My husband at first wasn’t thrilled about something else taking up space in our backyard. But you know what? I can’t tell you how many evenings I’ve come home to find him outside jumping with them on it. There’s nothing like seeing him act like a big kid with them and hearing their hysteric laughter.

I hope this is a summer our kids remember and enjoy. I mean dude, from Disneyland with mom, to a family beach trip, water balloon fights in the backyard, and gaming outside on our new trampoline… We’ve made a lot of good memories.

Now, on to a new chapter. First day of homeschool!

How was your summer?

*I love spending quality time with my family and getting active with my kids. I love it when companies make that easier for me with inventions like Tgoma. That’s why I’ve partnered with Springfree Trampoline for a series on getting outside and playing with our kids. All opinions are my own. 

Tags: family time, springfree trampoline, summer