I can hardly believe it, but summer is nearly halfway over. I’m not sure how that happened. In years past, this would be about the part of summer where I’d begin my silent countdown to the start of school. Instead I’m silently wishing the days would just slow down. I can’t slow down time, but I can thoroughly enjoy the second half of summer just as much as the first. Here’s a look at our summer so far:
1. Spending lots of time with family and friends. My sister, Ana, and I took in Vintage Indiana and loved it.
2. Summer, to me, means extra time for reading. Eli is just beginning to read on his own, which is so exciting. Elena’s always been a voracious reader, but this is the first summer where I find other “interests” competing for her love of books. She’s too young for the teen reading program at the library, but feels like the kids’ reading program is too babyish. Sigh. So I’m doing my best to carve out time for us too all read together. On this particular day we spread a blanket outside and took our books with us.
3. If it stands still long enough, Eli will climb it. I put SPF 50 on this kid multiple times a day, and still he is as brown as a coconut. Summer to him is playing outside as long as possible, even better if he can be shirtless most of the day.
4. Our art journals. I’ve been experimenting a bit with Tinkerlab’s Double Page Spread art prompts. It feels so good to get creative with the kids.
5. Indianapolis Indians game. I didn’t realize it until after I snapped the photo that it was such a representation of our life right now. Eli and Mike, happily engaged in the moment. Elena, happily engaged in her iPod. Did I mention the difficulty of competing with her other “interests?” I promise, she did put the iPod down and enjoy some of the baseball game with the rest of us.
6. Swim team. Eli is competing in our pool’s swim team for the first time. I may have signed him up for sole purpose of the bathing suit. His breast stroke is phenomenal, his freestyle is pretty good, and his backstoke? Hmm … did I mention how good he is at breast stroke? Kid sinks like a stone.
7. A few weeks ago we spent some time in our old stomping grounds of Nashville, Tennessee. We mostly spent time with family, but one day I took the kids into downtown Nashville. If you’re ever in town with kids, be sure to visit the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. It’s the most kid-friendly art museum I’ve ever been to.
8. Nashville also has something Indy lacks: a Krispy Kreme. We polished off a dozen in a day.
9. On our way back home we made our first visit to a National Park, Mammoth Cave. So cool. We’ll definitely be visiting more.
10. She’s been begging me for almost a year, so just before her birthday I broke down and dyed the tips of Elena’s hair blue.
11. Elena is spending two weeks at Girl Scout camp this summer. It’s such a strange feeling to pack up your kid and send them off to live in the wilderness with strangers for a week. It’s something I never did as a child, but something she loves.
12. On the 4th of July, friends of my parents invited us out for a boat ride. Eli “drove” almost the entire time. Verdict? We need a “fast” boat in our family, according to Eli.
All of these photos come from my Instagram. If you’re not following me already, I hope you will! My username is angiesix.
