Goodbye Summer

Well, I never meant to take a summer vacay from blogging.  We got so busy having fun, the days just went too quickly for me to stop and write about them.  Combine that with a few technical glitches from moving servers and a whirlwind trip to the Czech Republic and France, and I found myself with oh-so-much to write about but no time to type it all up.  So, here’s to playing catch-up now that Fall has arrived.

Charlotte’s been back in school for a few weeks now, and the little girls have been back in preschool for just one. It’s hard for me to think that another summer of their precious childhoods has gone.

However, we do have some great memories! Our favorite thing that we did together as often as possible was go to the pool.

Charlotte went off the high dive for the first time.

The cool water was a great antidote to the heat.

Every summer vacation is good, but I think this was my favorite one yet as a mom. Why?

• Now that my youngest is two, we weren’t so limited by the nap schedule. In fact, the little girls went days without naps this summer. Some days, they held up great. Others, well, things might have been rough around 4:30, but they were sound asleep at 7 o’clock. On days I could tell they were running out of steam, we made sure to be at home in the afternoons, but for the most part, I used this new freedom to pack more into those brief summer days.
• We had almost exactly two months for summer vacation–not enough time for all the things we wanted to do! Last summer, I felt like the days got away from me, so this summer I was prepared. In early May, I talked to the girls about what they wanted to do this summer. Charlotte wrote a list of  activities like the children’s museum, the pool, a picnic and so on that the girls agreed they all wanted to do. I think we managed to go and do everything they requested except for the zoo. The days we could have gone were just too hot, so we’ll go over fall break!
• The list also included specific requests for playdates, and I set to work inviting friends over as soon as school ended and kept it up through August, trying to plan a week or so in advance. The girls didn’t get to play with everyone on the list, but they had more friends over than they would have if we hadn’t planned for it. It was really nice for them to strengthen their friendships from school over the summer.  My girls also spent lots of time playing with the neighbors. Long afternoons of play was much more fun than play sandwiched between homework and school-night bedtimes.
• I sprinkled in just enough summer camps. I started looking into different programs in March or April and got recommendations from friends. Some great programs I didn’t sign up for because they were all day, and I wanted to have my children with me for at least part of the day; others just weren’t convenient; other sounded great, but I thought that particular week needed to be a week of downtime.  Amazingly, I got lucky. Every program my girls went to was a positive experience for them and we hit a great balance of scheduled and unscheduled time.
• I was prepared for days at home. I had several craft ideas tucked away in my mind for days when plans fell through or the grumps hit. Really, though, my ideas didn’t come into play much–the girls were content to rummage through our art cabinet and come up with their own plans. But, if that hadn’t been the case, I was prepared.
• Finally, as evidenced by my lack of presence in the cyberworld this summer, I just gave over to the whole concept of summer vacation. I didn’t want to be at the computer, shooing kids away so I could type. I wanted to enjoy this time, especially with Charlotte who I see too little of during the school year. The computer and then house were a little neglected, but my family got plenty of attention. We read books, cooked, sat in the hammock, and did all those other great summer things that families should do.

Yeah, it was a great summer….