Wildwood love

A heartfelt (sometimes blurry) love letter
to a place I love
(& one of the capital cities on the map of my childhood):

My soul spends summers in Wildwood

even when the rest of me can't.

Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma Pax,
for creating and hosting
such a place.
Pure magic.
And love.

And so it begins

Look who I found in the car today.
AND THEY WON'T GET OUT!

Not even when I pull up in front of the school
And open the door + honk really loudly

Yes, today is our first day of summer vacation. Officially. We had a sad little wimpy half day yesterday where they went to school and watched a movie and played games and then came home before lunch. Why the school district decided to do that on a Monday, I have no clue.

Since this is the first day of summer, it is also the first day of the Good Intentions Summer Program, version 9.0. {That's me, paving the road to hell with them, one year at a time.} But a couple of friends have asked what we do in the summer to stay occupied and out of the summer blahs. (And I have to admit, I'm very susceptible to the summer blahs so I need to have some sort of structure, too.) For those who are interested, here are the bare bones of our daily summer structure. It is oriented to the middle childhood/teen years:

Morning: Getting Things Done stage of the day
Afternoon + evening: Having Adventures, Having Fun, and/or Lounging Around time.

Four rules:
Do dailies before other things (room, practice, and weed your assigned plot).
Extra jobs can be done for $ after the dailies
Practice time earns computer time (i.e., 30 minutes practicing=30 minutes computer)
Fun will be had. I promise. No complaining.

Afternoons:
sometimes organized adventures, sometimes on-your-own fun

Library. Bookstore.

Bike ride.

Trip to the pond. Or one of our favorite beaches.

Logic puzzles (my kids love trying the kids' section of these)

Movie (oh, yeah...I'm always up for a good summer matinee)

Take Louie on a long walk (please!)

Six Flags (in a fit of I-don't-know-what we got season passes this year)

Make a treasure hunt. Or a map. Or an obstacle course and record everyone's times

Have a friend over

Do an art project (Maddy received* the Guerilla Art Kit by the lovely Keri Smith. We'll be using this for fun ideas throughout the summer, I hope. It's really fantastic.)

Read, read, read.(Sam wanted to start a blog about books for boys so he'll be adding to that throughout the summer. I think. Remember what I said about good intentions...and we're still putting it together. But here's the link: Kids Bookshelf).

Please, please, please. What are you doing this summer? Or in your growing up summers? Do you/did you have Good Intentions Summer Programs? How long did they last? I'd love to hear your ideas in a comment or e-mail or link to your blog. The summer blahs are riding on this.

*This is kind of a backdoor brag. Maddy received this award at school, one where the teachers choose a 6th grader who embodies the school values of kindness and friendliness and excellence. I'm sort of against awards until one of my kids gets one and then I'm all "well, she did kind of deserve that one." Go ahead and roll your eyes, I won't look.

Photobooth, I love thee

Backyard. Today. 3-4 p.m.

^I didn't get the memo on the fierce posing

^I said "blue steel!" I guess they didn't see that movie

^Yes, we're having a wee bit of a nibbling problem. With the pup.

And then I went inside and realized I never put on makeup today.

Never say never

I was afraid spring break around here was going to be a little bit of a downer (by the way, I would totally hire this company if I needed to move my piano--extra points for black humor) but it turned out to be a great week.
The gorgeous weather didn't hurt.
We did NYC last weekend,
went to Six Flags on Tuesday,
had a picnic and hang-out day on Wednesday,
the kids went to work with G on Thursday,
another free-form day on Friday,
and kayaking on the river on Saturday.
Bonus=I'm so glad I'm not driving back from Florida today.

However--word to the wise.
If you have a Nuvi navigation system, be sure you have it set to
"fastest route"
rather than "shortest route."
Otherwise, when you drive to NYC, you will be boggled
and confused about why you keep getting directed off
of the modern 21st century freeway
to travel the scenic byways of Connecticut and New York,
complete with stoplights every 100 feet or so.
Certainly check on the setting while this is happening,
rather than waiting until you arrive back home.
Just a suggestion.

Notice the oldest child cowering behind the others. Lauren has reached the age of weariness with her photographing mom. She's been heard to mutter "don't you think you should be experiencing this instead of taking pictures of it?" and "Not again!" Kids these days and their exasperating logical conclusions! What she doesn't realize is that I need proof of the great times we all had! These are my evidence exhibits in the court of we-never-went-anywhere-when-we-were-kids! Unfortunately, it will appear that I myself never went anywhere with them, since I am always behind the camera but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Maddy's getting ready for a big violin recital next week. She continues to read books that are too sad and make her cry, although she feels that a book isn't truly great unless it does make her cry. This results in an almost daily cleansing cry and hugging fest. (Hint= if the character has a serious illness at the beginning, it's probably not going to end happily.) My favorite Maddyism this week was when we were winding through side streets in the Bronx (thanks confused Nuvi!). Noticing the brownstones and the porch stoops she said cheerfully "This reminds me of Sesame Street." [pause while drunk down-on-luck guy crosses in front of us and yells] "Except he's not so happy."

Sam is just glad he didn't have to spend more time in the car. He spent his free time this week making up impossible logic quizzes for me and G to stumble through. And grading them with big fat sorry scores. For some reason he started a balloon collection, blew them all up, and plans to sell them. I'm not sure who conducted his market research of the demand for blown-up balloons...but I'm pretty sure who's going to end up being his primary customer! Especially if it means clearing them from our house!

And, finally, in the never say never department
here's the newest addition to our household:

We finally wore down G and, after lots of conversations with breeders, etc.
we have (or will have when he can come home in a week or two) a puppy!
Four of us love him and one of us hopes he doesn't shed, bark, chew, poop, or stink.

Please help us
name this dog
If we choose your name suggestion (left in the comments),
I will send you a fabulous prize
having to do with a book shopping spree
and nothing to do with dogs.

(our naming guidelines: people names preferred...
nothing too cutesy...think manly with a hint of sensitive(?)...
uniqueness preferred...)

Hygiene training

May or may not have been heard at our house:

"Why did I only get one pair of underpants from you in the laundry this week?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ‘cause I only took one shower.”

“Wait. You only took one shower?”

Nod.

{How did I not notice that?}

“Hmm. That’s not enough.”

“oKAY.”

“And also? Wait a minute….FAMILY MEETING! EVERY ONE COME HERE A MINUTE!”

Kids assemble from all corners of the house.

“Is everyone aware that the standard is clean underpants Every. Single. Day??

Guffaws & nods.

“Okay. Because I’m definitely not seeing 21 pairs of kid underpants every week in the laundry, if you know what I mean…”

Horrified silence.

“Can we go now?”

“Yes.”

I’m pretty sure I had mentioned all this to them before. More than a few times.
It wasn’t the Romney’s sickness training video* but it was needed all the same.

*my favorite line from the video: "There's a hierarchy of things we care about. First? Carpet...Second? Other people." {Hey Jessica, you've had 1,112 views on YouTube for that video! Your system is spreading across the globe...}