School's out...now what?

Our first week of summer...meaning no school...has officially begun.

Max's last day of preschool was actually a couple weeks ago. We were a little concerned as the school year was ending because he kept saying that he had no friends at school and no one wanted to play with him. He never complained about school, and happily went twice a week, so I was a bit baffled by his claim of playing with nobody. I did meet with his teacher about this, and she assured me that he is very well liked, all the kids like to play with him...although he does prefer to play with the girls (which in no way surprised me). His perception is definitely not in sync with reality apparently. And when I went to his end of the year program, this was his contribution to the class's poster on each kid's favorite activity (which was done before I even meeting with his teacher):

Max with his very loving and creative teacher, Miss Peg.

Cameron's last day was Thursday. But Cameron NEEDS to be busy. If he's not, he tends to torture his little siblings, causing nothing but troube. However, I don't want to overschedule Cameron. Although he would probably love all the different camps and activities I could put him in, I don't want to spend all that money, or do all the driving around. Plus he has lots of friends in the neighborhood to hang out with (and they're free). And I think it's important for kids to figure out different things to do together, on their own, that does not involve playing video games.

Cam and his amazing first grade teacher. I do hope Max gets her someday.

In order to have a successful summer, I'm trying to getting into some routine with the kids. The usual breakfast, teeth brushed, beds made, clothes on routine still exists. But I don't want the TV to rule our mornings, as is often the case on the weekends. So in addition to a couple of chores a week, the kids also will have homework to do. Both Cameron and Max have a book they're working out of, and Ella, well, she has crayons and paper. Plus, Cameron will be doing some reading of novels and some journaling as well.

Today, except for Max's complaining that writing letters was boring and insisting that he write E's when he was supposed to be writing F's, all went well. Cameron completed his work in less than an hour, with no moaning and groaning on "this is not what summer is for" (as he had done when I told him about our routine for this time off school). Sara took the kids to Teddy Bear park while I ran and did some errands. When the kids got home, Cam played with some neighborhood friends, and Max hung out in and around the house.

All in all, a good first day. I hope we can keep it up.

30 minute conversation = double the clean-up time

I should have known that sitting on our screened-in porch, watching a torrential downpour while sipping some wine and having a nice conversation with my husband, uninterrupted, while the kids played in the basement, would not occur without a price.



In case you can't tell, in addition to everything else being toppled over, Ella dumped out 4 containers of foam stickers...totalling a couple THOUSAND tiny pieces of foam scattered all over the floor.

Camper Cameron

I’ve noticed that I haven’t written much about my oldest son lately. That’s because this week he hasn’t been around much as he’s been in day camp with his friend Ben. At first he thought it was an overnight camp and did not want to go. But once he heard it was just during the day he was excited.

The morning of his first day, he was up bright and early, ready to get going. I handed him some clothes to put on.

“But Mommy, at camp you’re supposed to wear brown clothes with badges!”

“What?” I asked, having no clue what he was talking about.

“When people go to camp, they wear brown shirts and there are badges on them.”

It was then that I realized he was talking about the Scouts, which he knows a little about because the boys across the street belong to them.

“No Cameron, that’s if you’re a Cub Scout. But you’re not going to Cub Scout camp. You’re just going to a regular camp.”

“But why aren’t I going to Cub Scout camp?”

“Because Cub Scouts is a club that you belong to when you’re in first grade.”

“So I’m going to Club Scout camp?”

“No! You’re just going to a regular Day Camp. It’s called the YMCA Day Camp.”

“Oh,” he responded, a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be collecting any badges.
But the whole rest of the day, whenever he talked about camp, he referred to it as the Y…M…C…A Day Camp, pausing between each letter, making sure he said the full name.

This week he had the opportunity to do fun things like hiking, canoeing, swimming, gym games and archery. Yes, they put bows and arrows into the hands of 6 year olds. Cameron said he didn’t even get it on the target. I’m glad I wasn’t around to see that.

He also participated in the daily Opening and Closing ceremonies. The past few days kids volunteered to share some talent that they had that maybe other kids wouldn’t be able to do…..2 boys burped their ABCS, one girl did fart sounds with her knee, and another camper made her eyeballs shiver. Cameron volunteered today and showed everyone how he could cross his eyes. Such honorable talents!

Anyhow, even though he’s incredibly exhausted by the end of the day, he’s having a blast, and even wants to do another week later on in the summer. And I’m sure after a month of him being around everyday, wanting to be entertained constantly, I’ll be more than happy to do the early morning drive and send him back to the Y..M..C..A Day Camp.

Chutes and Ladders

Today was Cameron’s official first day of summer…no school.

We went to an amazing park I had never been to before. I think half of Minnesota was there as well.

While playing, Ella had sand dumped on her head by a little girl whose response to me when I asked her not to do that was, “Well, she’s not being very nice.”

Despite climbing through all the ropes, crawling through the tubes and slipping down the slides at least 10 times by himself, Max decided at one point that he was scared and had to be helped by some of the playground monitors before I was able to scale the ropes to reach his tear-filled face.

Cameron and his two friends were (supposedly) being chased and pushed around by another group of boys.

And yet when it came time to go, none of them wanted to leave.

Can’t imagine why not! Is this KidHeaven or what?

Summertime Art

As Ella chomps on chalk, Max works on his masterpiece.

"Mom! Look. Come see! I made a unicorn!"

"Oh yes, I see. What a great unicorn you made!"

"Um, actually, it's a lobster."

"Oh, of course. Those two are easy to confuse. What a great lobster!"