Mommy Camp

You think she's happy now?  You should have seen them all when the whipped cream made it's appearance

We've survived the first 10 days of summer - and we've done more than that - we've thrived.  Not without some bumps on the road - of course.  Every single day Ryan removes all of the clothes and pajamas from his drawer and from his dress-up box.  He probably puts on 5-8 outfits/day.  And every day he cries when I ask him to put it all away.  My request for clean up usually has him doubled over in pain or exhaustion.  And speaking of clean-up, my almost 9 year old cried today when I asked her to unload the dishwasher.  She cried about this, I tell you!

But despite this, we've had some great moments.  These are the children's goals for the summer (created with some help from me):

Emmy 

Read a lot

Learn cursive

Memorize multiplication facts

Practice piano 5 times/week

Say morning prayers

Learn to bake cookies

Improve on cartwheel and round-off

Be Happy and Grateful!

Sophie

Read one book/day

Practice handwriting

Practice piano 5 times/week

Say morning prayers

Happily ride bike to school

Learn the monkey bars

Learn to do a cartwheel

Be Happy and Grateful!

Ryan

Read with mommy every day

Learn to write name

Say morning prayers

Swim in the deep end

Learn to do a backwards somersault

Be Happy and Grateful!

Will

Stop growing so fast!

Every day we try to work on a couple things from the goal list.  We usually go swimming.  We usually go to the park.  We meet with friends.  We eat cold treats.  One day we took off for Happy Hollow spontaneously and ate juicy chicken and waffle fries from Chick-fil-A for dinner while listening to the audio book of Ellen Tebbits (by Beverly Cleary).  Each child has a job or two per day - which is as much as I can handle.  We are reading The Tale of Despereaux together in the evenings and we are all hooked.  I try to read a fun or inspirational or creative book to the kids as they eat their breakfasts.  We watch TV.  We do art projects.  Life has been good.  And my summer goal - is to enjoy this time and to capture it by writing more.  Very few of my friends blog anymore.  Most have gone the way of Instagram - which I love - but call me old-fashioned: I still prefer the blog.  Because it forces me to write more.   And write more I will.  Not for my friends - who probably aren't reading this.  Sort of for my parents - who are reading this (thank you, Mom and Dad!! and Jo Ann too!) - but mainly for me.  I am trying to give myself the gift of memories.