Such a Good Summah {or :: What We did on our Summer Vacation}

It's officially autumn, although sitting through three soccer games on Saturday with hoods up, and  noses red, and  shivering under a quilt, it seemed like summer had skipped right on to winter. It's a funny time of year when there are both Uggs and flip flops still camped out at the back door. The weather is arbitrary. It is autumn.

It might then be time, thought I, to record some of the highlights of our summer holidays.

Last week I had the rare pleasure of having my seven-year-old for an hour in the middle of a school day. While I ferried her to the dentist and then back to school for the rest of her day in second grade, she was chatty.

"I wish it would be April and my birthday," she said.

I asked why.

"Because after that it would be May and school would be out."

At first I panicked that she was not really settling into her new school routine, and thought what a very long year this would be if we were already optimistic for forth quarter, from our early vantage point half way through the first quarter.

"Because we had such a great summer, this summer?" I ventured.

"Yes!" she piped up exuberantly. "It was such a good summah"

{She still pronounces an open mouth /r/, especially as a final. I think it's cute. The British phonics curriculum taught it that way ... and she clings to it, although American phonics and her Speech therapist are working on helping her grasp the harsher American pronunciation of /r/.}

Our "Good Summah" began with back-to-back weeks of VBS (for all three), Volleyball Camp (for Bei Bei), a Teen Philanthropy Summit (for our teenager), Beekeeping classes (for our middle)and Nature Camp for all three. 

We went into Chicago so many times I could have changed our prefix to 312. We hit the Children's Museum @ Navy Pier, The Planetarium, The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (which was a totally wonderful surprise and is free to IL residents every Thursday.) We spent Father's Day in Chinatown.

I drive my kiddos nuts requiring them to put away any electronics or books as we broach the City. They are forced to identify landmarks, and places of interest, beaches by name, and major thoroughfares.

"This is your city." I tell them, "I want you to know it!"



{Chicago Skyline}
Photo Credit :: Seven-year-old in the back of a moving vehicle