life

All the Summer Things

May 31, 2023

Summer Thoughts

I’m enjoying all of the summer-themed posts: here are two from just yesterday!
Our summer is going to be . . . well . . . FULL.

It is what it is.

Camp: Each kid is doing 5 weeks of camp total. For the big kids, 3 of those weeks are Monday-Friday local sleep away (home on weekends with a pile o’ laundry, lol). All of the other weeks are specialty camps: gymnastics (A, G), soccer (C), and dance (G). None of the camp will be at the kids’ school this year – we thought it would be more fun for them to have a change of scenery.

Travel: 2 short trips + 1 long trip. These trips are why the kids will only do 5 weeks of camp when obviously the summer break is much longer than that!

Activities: At a time of year when things seem like they should be winding down (there are 4 days left of school after today!), C is just starting 2 sports (lacrosse + basketball), plus his soccer season starts in early August. And A & G are both doing piano — restarting in A’s case and continuing from her school lessons for G. Josh is fully responsible for the dual sports for C (I was kind of overwhelmed and wanted to stick with one) but he does do a high proportion of the sports practice shuttling/spectating/later driving so I will give him credit there.

We will get a break from dance and gymnastics classes, apart from camp.

Mommy days. 1:1 days on the calendar for each kid! They are already planning out what they want to do . . .

Training: Marathon training will continue. I used to say I never wanted to train through a FL summer. I guess this will be my chance to see what it is like. It basically never gets to 100F or anything, but there are days when the low is >80F (and STICKY) so some of my runs will just have to happen under toasty conditions. (My local running readers – Jacksonville December marathon now open for registration!)

Summer Rhythms

  • Saturday library – continue!
  • Trips to the pool on weekends.
  • Screen time in moderation (when the weather is garbage — as it will be many afternoons — it will be nice to incorporate some screen time again for the kids. Just need to make sure everyone can stick to the in moderation part. Personally I will likely be curling up with juicy summer reading novels and enjoying naps with a thunderstorm soundtrack. And maybe a few jetpens videos.)

I’m looking forward to the minor changes in rhythm + energy and trying not to dread our worst weather season toooooo much. Let’s hope for a slow hurricane year!

So basically . . . they don’t know? I’m sure it is hard to predict!

Celebrating endings

Lots of those coming up! A and I got sushi last night to celebrate the end of gymnastics:

in our excitement we overordered so we strategically ate the raw pieces which do not make good leftovers!

8 Comments

  • Reply Lisa of Lisa's Yarns May 31, 2023 at 1:26 pm

    That sushi spread looks amazing!! I so rarely eat sushi since my husband isn’t a huge fan so I try to get it when I am traveling but when it’s just me, I can’t order much. So I’d love to join your sushi outing. 😉

    Your summer sounds great! Our oldest starts the public school summer kids program the last week of June. It sounds amazing as they have field trips every Friday and the focus of the program is cultures around the world so each week they learn about a different country. I think/hope he’s going to LOVE it. I’m hoping we like this summer kids program enough that we can send our younger son there when he’s old enough. The hours work great for us (starts at 7 which is key w/ us needing to be at work around 7:30) and it’s not very expensive all in all. Or maybe we’ll get a summer nanny when they are both in elementary school. We’ll see! We have a couple of trips to my parents lake home in July and then I have my short Banff trip in August and that’s about it for plans. We don’t plan all that much in summer because it’s one of the best seasons of the year here in Minnesota so we want to soak up our prime season!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger May 31, 2023 at 2:29 pm

      Omg i am dying to go to Banff! The summer program sounds awesome – and convenient too!

  • Reply Gillian May 31, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    I am ready for summer and my kids are definitely ready for summer … AND we still have 4 weeks of school (including this week)! The last two weeks of school are final for my older 2 kids which basically means they will go each day and take a test or give 1 presentation and spend the rest of the day at home doing very little.

    We do have some fun things planned though. My 3 older kids will go to sleep away camp. And we also have a bunch of specialty camps planned. Architecture, tech and sports camps. We have 1 short trip (with just 1 kids) and 1 long trip planned and I have a solo 24 hours planned.

    We will also say good bye to our current au pair, welcome our new au pair and get a nice long visit from a previous au pair–so lots of coming and going too.

    • Reply Coree June 1, 2023 at 3:55 am

      4 weeks here as well. Our summer holidays are pretty short though.

  • Reply Chelsea May 31, 2023 at 7:57 pm

    We are in Williams AZ right now, taking the train into the Grand Canyon tomorrow :). After that, we’ve got camps, swim lessons and music lessons. Definitely going for a more chill vibe than the rest of the year.

  • Reply Sarah May 31, 2023 at 10:48 pm

    Yay summer!! We are still debating our weekly rhythms, but I can’t wait to finalize a “schedule” and laminate it #dorkforever. Is it possible ever to order the right amount of sushi? If so, we have never managed

  • Reply Coree June 1, 2023 at 3:54 am

    Yum! My husband is veggie but T and I love sushi. We’ve got a little pop up in our village that kindly delivered us a big platter when we were stuck home with covid (on my birthday!)

    That sounds like a nice balance for the summer. Our summers are only 7 weeks, and we aren’t our till the end of June. We have 2 weeks of swim camp in Lisbon, a week with the grandparents, a week at a local forest school camp, a week at the beach, and then my parents are coming for a week, and we will white knuckle the rest (my brother in law is coming with his 4 20 something kids as well…). I feel like it’s slightly over scheduled and fragmented from a work perspective, but I have 4 articles/chapters due before school finishes so after that, I’ll probably need a writing break anyways, I can prep teaching, catch up on the literature, etc.

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger June 1, 2023 at 12:17 pm

      Swim camp in Lisbon sounds sooooo cool 🙂

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