Summer Fun and Friends

Well, silly me. I thought that when the regularly scheduled classes wound down, we would slip into a more leasurely summer mode wherein I get the kids to catch up on their bookwork and we spent afternoons by the pool and/or with friends. I would get caught up on my record keeping and we'd get some trips planned. Maybe I would get the garden up to snuff.

Instead, the last two weeks have been a whirlwind of friend time. We are definitely deep into the summer fun. 

This was all precipitated by some friends who were leaving town. The younger son of this lovely family was good friends with my son, so it became imperative that the boys get in as much time together before they left as possible. 


We spent a couple of days at Jordan Lake and had a really nice time, though it's impossible to go and not have the kids come back sunburnt.

I cover them in sun block and make them wear shirts, but they spend the entire time, hours, in the water. I try to get them out to re-apply, but it seems like a hopeless battle. 

The first day we hit Seaforth Beach with the homeschool group. The second time, it was just a small group of friends and we went to Parkers Creek. We hit Parkers Creek right after some severe storms had blown through and the water was very high. The beach was small and some of the picnic tables were submerged. I love, though, that we can go during the week when most people are still in school or at work. Our group was the crowd. 

My son's friend found this in the mud of the beach and gave it to him as a going away present. I think I am more excited about it than he is!





We took one day and went ice skating. This was also a good time... though we did have to try to relocate the jackets and gloves. Going from the beach to the ice is quite a juxtaposition.














After that some of us met at a comedy club for some laughs.

The boys got together at Shenck Forest for one last Schoolhouse of Wonder Homeschool Adventure Day.


There were playdates and sleepovers, and I'm not just talking about the boys.


Simultaniously, some friends of my daughters swooped into town and wanted to get the girls together. I ended up hosting the group of 5 girls for a sleepover night at our house and they had almost two whole days of playtime after that. 

No matter how much time they have, they always want more. It's amazing.

We have made some really great friends homeschooling, and I think they are friends in a way that would be hard to have if you were in a school where the kids get placed into different classrooms each year and you mostly just get to see the people in your class all year.

Of course, sometimes it has been difficult to find time between our busy schedules to arrange those playdates. I had to cancel some of our plans to accommodate all of this extra play time, but I was willing to do it because it was a limited time and good friends matter. 

I am also aware that arranging playdates all the time is a new construct and probably not something our own parents did a whole lot of. You played with whomever was available in the neighborhood, or at school, or not at all, right?



Still, we have some flexibility when it comes down to it and they can, indeed, see the people they like year after year. Because these are people we have chosen to hang around, and not just whomever we might meet in the classroom, they are people we really enjoy. I'm hoping that these friendships are the kind that will be long-term, maybe even life-long.

In between all of this, my husband flew out of town and came back, a couple of large storms came through and knocked out our power and internet, and my daughter got her braces for the first time, something I've never had to deal with, so it's new to all of us. 

I feel like we are starting to get back to normal now, whatever "normal" is. It's been fun, but I think I'm ready for the camps to start so I can take my own little RNR.