Start of Summer & Lots of Lasts

Our summer is off to a good start.

Here’s a quick re-cap of the past couple of weeks:

The Last Day of School ~

The last day of two 2nd-graders and a pre-schooler. Onward and upward! The last day was a half day. I picked ’em up and took ’em out to their favorite lunch: Hibachi ~

We’ve managed to pack in quite a few lasts in the last bunch of days:

Last Little League game of the season ~

Last playdate of the school year ~

We weathered the storm of “lasts” quite nicely all things considered. We woke up on our first official day of “summer” (i.e., first day of no school) to the most torrential downpour and flash floods we’ve had since moving here. I could not get over how hard it was raining. The bambinos were in their pjs and I sent ’em out there to celebrate the first day of summer break. They went cray-z. (That makes their mama proud; I love a kid who can go wild in the rain; I was always that camp counselor who was first out of the cabins for puddle jumping, with all my little campers like little ducks stomping right behind me. Big warm rain + happy free kids = the best.)

That was a nice start to summer. But, for the boys, the start of summer is most symbolized by the newfound freedom to stay up late watching Red Sox games. This is their happy place:

Summer for Meera means more time to toodle and doodle. This is her happy place:

Summer means more time to read ~

I believe strongly that in the best case scenario summer should include getting sufficiently bored for creativity to set in. If the start of our summer is any indication, this summer will include a lot of creativity. Sufficient boredom (“dead time”; “unstructured activity”; time to “do nothing”) is a prerequisite for the kind of rich play I’m talking about here.

Late afternoon pedicure in the bathroom sink is a good sign of sufficient boredom ~

I also believe strongly that in the best case scenario summer should include water. Lots and lots of water. Of all kinds of varieties.

{Note: despite the fact that I miss our pool a lot, the bambinos have not mentioned it once on their own, and seem to not miss it much at all. In fact, when I ask them straight out, “Do you miss our old pool?” they respond simply with, “Sorta.”}

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P.S. Summer is also a time of eating. Lotsa eating. I can barely keep up (the demand often outweighs the supply on summer days). Speaking of eating… our girl turned a big corner upon turning 5 — the other day, for the first time ever, she ate her entire sandwich at Subway for lunch (the Subway “kids size” – her usual: turkey and cheese on wheat with cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, and mayo). She was rewarded with a chocolate chip cookie for dessert. She made her brothers proud — Owen especially could not have been a prouder big brother of his sister’s momentous feat. (Of course, her brothers were eating an entire 6-inch each by the time they were 5, but we didn’t feel the need to mention that to her).

Onward and upward! Growing, playing, summer fun in the sun and rain. As my dad is famous for saying, “This is going to be the best summer ever!!!”