Thursday, July 14, 2011

Sam's Summer



I can hardly believe that Sam's summer will be over in just four short weeks! Where does the time go? With the longer school years that are being implemented across the country, it seems that summers have gotten shorter and shorter for our children.

That was a big reason for my decision to quit my part time job and enjoy this time, as brief as it is, while all of my sons are under one roof. Before Sam starts school on August 17th. Before big brothers Luke and John head off to college.

Thus far, we've managed to pack a lot in to a little time. We've visited Grandma in Michigan not once but twice! We've visited two art museums. We've been to garden tours and festivals. Sam's been to a week of Vacation Bible School and five different sports camps.



Today was Sam's last day of bowling camp. Cosmic glow bowling! How fun is that?

Yesterday, we did a little toy shopping in our basement storage area. By toy shopping, I mean that we looked for some fun things that older brothers once played with, and brought them out for a new audience. Now I want to state right here that I'm not a person that saves every precious artifact from my children's youth. But some toys were just too cool to get rid of. KNex, Legos, Thomas and Brio trains, Fisher Price castles and pirate ships. Sam has enjoyed playing with these hand-me-down toys just as much as the shiny new toys from the store.



Yesterday, we discovered some awesome puzzles that big brothers had enjoyed when they were young. These 200 piece puzzles were called Buried Blueprints, and each puzzle had a theme. Sam and I had a lot of fun putting this pirate puzzle together and reading all of the facts about pirates.



Today, we worked on a colorful Ocean Critters puzzle. Notice how Sam is wearing his swimming trunks, just in case a friend stops by and wants to have some water fun.



Ding dong! Can Sam come out to play? While many aspects of subdivision life just grates on my every last nerve, I do love the fact that we live in a safe neighborhood where children can roam and play together and just be kids without a lot of parental interference. No organized play dates for us! Our play is all spontaneous all day long. The other day, I was comparing notes with one of the neighborhood moms. Does your son come home exhausted and hungry at sundown? Yep! And they sleep like they've just spent all day in the sunshine, which they have.



When Sam has a quiet moment before bed time, we like to do a little reading. Tonight, we will finish The Mouse and The Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. I think we'll move on to one of the classics by Roald Dahl. Sam's also doing some journalling, writing down his summer adventures and drawing pictures to capture the memories. I'm doing my best to combat the summer brain drain that teachers complain about at the beginning of every new school year!



I hope Sam will have fun memories of this action packed summer!

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