Images of Summer

Heh. I didn't write a single post for the entire summer. It was a busy season...and it honestly seemed really long. I can't believe the kids are back in school. My life suddenly seems a little more sane, even if there's more work involved. But the summer deserves some thought. We packed a lot in those few weeks when I didn't work. And the kids were in camp the rest of the time. It was busy at the office too, so I was glad to have planned ahead. But enough of that. On with the pictures!

Smunch played on the PONY in-house All-Stars team, which plays a single weekend tournament against the other in-house teams. His team won again!

Best baseball season EVER.

Mam continued to have a successful Nova season all the way through June, although they won no more tournaments. She was often one of the stars.

We went to see the big boys play. Shocker huh? Wasn't a shocker when they lost in 13 innings either!

As soon as Nova was done, we went camping in the Redwoods...with banana slugs.

We did some hiking in the forest, including fording the little river

The kids enjoyed themselves

Best Ranger Program EVER

With a little guidance, you can find all kinds of stuff in the creek!

Aunt Karen came to visit with Spencer! and Lucas! Lucas was more lively than this most of the time.

And then we went to San Diego to visit Aunt Karen..and Spencer! and Lucas!

We went to Anza Borrego State Park on a particularly thundery day. The kids learned about flash floods!

We went to the water park...apparently water slides are exhausting!

We went boogie boarding at the beach. The kids LOVED it!

Did I mention that they LOVED it??

O.K., I thought it was pretty fun too.

And we all took a falconry class at the La Jolla Gliderport. Smunch with a Harris' Hawk.

A week later, Mam and I decided to do something Giant

...and completed the Giant Race 5K right on the field at AT&T Park.

And would you believe, that wasn't the end? We still had one more Grand adventure in store....but that requires its own post or five.

First Day 2012

It's hard to believe she's in third grade all of a sudden. And even harder yet to imagine that he's a fifth grader. Where has the time gone?

I don't know why I ask because I know exactly where much of it goes. The last weeks of summer were full of trips to nature camp for Mam, including her first overnight. Smunch and I played a full 36 holes of mini-golf in her absence...capped by Smunch successfully shooting for a free game (with my ball after shanking it with his own)at the 19th (which was really our 37th) hole.

And I took them both to the water slides in San Jose where we spent the better part of the day having a whole lot of fun and never visiting those towels that were saving us a space on the lawn.

We went for frozen yogurt...several times...we spent time with friends, we cleaned out the studio, which is now unrecognizable after the disaster the kids and their cousins made out there last month. I sold several outgrown kid toys...a sand and water table, a train table, the kiddie pool... I patched two punctured bike tires, replaced the entire innards of the master bathroom toilet, cut down the branches that were knocking down the back fence, and hemmed two pair of baseball pants that were a good six inches too long, but were required for Smunch's travel team. I bought a new vacuum cleaner...an event far more exciting to me than I really want to admit.

And now, the kids are back in school and their limited time at home is filled with homework, soccer practice, baseball practice, orthodontist appointments (now for both), speech therapy and the race to get finished with dinner before bedtime.

What does that mean? It means this year will be over before I know it and that a few minutes from now, I'll be sending Smunch off to his last year of elementary school (which is 6th grade in our district).

When my kids were little and people told me, "Oh, they grown so fast!" I knew what they meant, but I still felt like days moved by so terribly slowly.

It's only now that I'm really beginning to understand.

Summer Veggies

It's been such a sad, sad summer in my garden. It's been so cool that these were the first two tomatoes to ripen and there've been only about five more. None of the bigger tomatoes are red yet...although one of them is a yellow/green tomato anyway. The basil's all ready to go, but no tomatoes to eat it with! The string beans have been fun though. Mam helped me plant a variety of colors, so we've got purple, yellow and green beans. They're good too...although the purple beans actually turn green when you cook them. You can see a couple of funny little squashes. I thought I was buying yellow crook-necked squash, but clearly I blew it. These are little, green spaceship-shaped squashes instead.

Fortunately, I got the netting over the pear tree in time to save our crop from squirrels this year. There are tons of ripening pears out there. And our apple tree will have a crop for the first time this year too...of three different apple varieties. I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out...although I may have let our little tree become a tad overambitious this year!

No More Pencils...

This was the look on Smunch's face as he walked out of school on his last day of first grade. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I brought the camera, but it's probably the look I deserved for trying to preserve his last minute as a first grader.

It was so much harder than I'd expected it to be. Maybe it's because I was the room mom this year. I got to know his teacher pretty well. I was in the classroom a lot. I talked to all the parents so I kinda knew everyone. I knew all the kids well enough to have opinions about all of them...and to have corrected my errant first impressions of some of them. Smunch made new friends and so did I.

But maybe it was how much Smunch grew this past school year. Naturally, I don't mean he's suddenly tall. That sort of growth isn't his strong suit. He just changed so much. It's hard to believe he was the kid who really, really didn't want to go to his second day of first grade after being completely overwhelmed on day one. Gosh, I still get teary re-reading that entry. That second day? That was the last day he said he didn't want to go to school.

He quickly made a best friend...something he'd never, ever had before. And his teacher wasn't so scary after all, even if this wasn't quite what Smunch had in mind when I asked if I could take a picture of him with her. He started off the year playing with a group of other first graders in the sand box, but by the end of the year he was playing "shoot out" with a group of 3rd graders every recess. (I don't know what that is, except that it's vaguely basketball-related.) They autographed his T-shirt before the last day of school. So much for the big, scary playground and lunch recess that was too long.

Despite having very obvious struggles to speak in class, when I was there and the teacher asked for volunteers, his hand always shot straight up along with those of all the other kids. And he didn't hesitate to speak, even if it was hard for him to get through whatever he wanted to say. And it changed him outside school as well. My kid who wouldn't dare go to a counter and ask for a cookie or ice cream, even when he had the money in his hand? He now brings his own money to swim class and goes and asks for his favorite cookie when he's done swimming. And at the bowling alley last week? When they didn't have the ball he needed, he not only went up to the counter to ask (they keep the light balls back there), but when the guy wasn't at the counter, he went and tracked him down!

He's getting so independent and has gained so much self-confidence. He's happy. He's looking forward to being a second grader, but psyched to have summer first...even though he doesn't know a single kid going to any of the camps he wanted to go to. They're mostly sports camps, so he's not going to care.

And then there's that. How many kids can sit through a baseball game? Sure you can make them, or at least tolerate the fidgeting, but how many of them are actually riveted to everything going on? That kid loves baseball in ways I can't quite begin to fathom. So, the NHL playoffs ended yesterday. He can tell you who won, but it's not a big deal. And the NBA playoffs are going on. He doesn't seem to care. Hey, Michael Phelps is swimming in a local swim meet. Couldn't care less. But he couldn't sleep tonight, not knowing the final score of the SF Giants game. He's going to drive some poor woman crazy someday.

Until then, he's seven and Mam is five and it's summer. What could be happier?

Last Days

I never realized quite what a bittersweet time of year the end of school is for parents. It's not just that you suddenly have to come up with entertainment for the summer, but you get to know and trust the kids' teachers. And, of course, it was Smunch's very last year of preschool, so that held some particular significance.

Smunch's school doesn't have a preschool graduation. I guess it's a good idea really. Not all of the 5-year-olds are going to kindergarten next year. The preschool has a program for 5-year-olds as well...aka, kids who weren't quite ready for kindergarten yet. Instead of a graduation, the school holds a big party in the park. All the kids in the school are invited. It was crazy, but so much fun! There were tons of very kid-friendly games and prizes. There was a bounce house, of course, and a funny, inflatable caterpillar that the kids could climb through and apparently get pooped out the end.

I couldn't believe they had one game that seemed especially designed for Mam. Under a little shade tent, they'd set out tubs of sand filled with "treasure" for the kids to dig for. I think she could have stayed there forever. In fact, she was there when they packed up...taking the tubs and the tent and leaving her to sift through the little mountains of sand that kids had dumped on the lawn!

And here's a photo of Smunch with his favorite teacher. It's funny. Mrs. M was kind of a severe-looking woman who actually made one of the little girls cry on the first day of school...just looking at her! She didn't put up with any BS from the kids and wasn't the warmest or snuggliest of the teachers. Throughout the year, I sometimes asked Smunch who his favorite teacher was and he always said "All of them." Finally, on the last day, it became Mrs. M. By that time, I'd realized what a terrific, caring teacher she really was too.

Mam's last day of school wasn't for another week, but it has come and gone as well. She had some warm, wonderful teachers this year and she was crazy about school. I hope that lasts! She'll be going to Smunch's school next year. I'm excited. It's so neat to watch them growing up and really starting to learn about everything. This is Mam with Miss Sandy. I don't know that she was Mam's favorite, but she was too busy fighting with Smunch over a mini beach ball to have her photo taken with her other teacher! This photo was a darned sight cuter than her official school photo!