We had a lovely day today. A very nice start to the summer, as Lex and I were discussing. Since Friday was the last day of school, Saturday and Sunday aren’t technically school days anyway, today was really the first day of summer vacation.

We did have to get out the door in the morning, but our departure time was 9:15am instead of the usual 7:50am. Our morning started at dance camp. Our first attempt at the summer camp scene. Eve and her friend from preschool signed up together. Eve put on her favorite dancing dress and we put bows in her hair and away we went. She was a bit nervous in the beginning, but I think she had fun.

Bows and mini buns, a perfect hairdo for dance camp. (a little lopsided, but she said it was perfect anyway!)

Lex and I hung around for about 10 minutes, but the campers were just sitting on the floor singing songs. Lex wanted to see some dancing! :) On Friday they will put on a short performance, so I promised him we would at least seem some dancing then. When we left Eve’s friend had sat down next to her and both girls were happily singing a good morning song with the teacher.

While Eve was at camp, Lex and I went grocery shopping. It was different. Usually we drop him off in the morning and Eve and I run errands, but this morning we dropped her off and Lex and I ran errands. Grocery shopping with him is easy peasy though, because he brings a book and sits in the cart. We were in and out in no time! We even had enough time to pick up our CSA share AND go home and put the groceries away before we had to pick up Eve again. I was psyched!

When we picked up Eve she was TIRED and hungry. We made it home, had lunch and stories, said farewell to my parents, and then crashed for the rest of the day. Lex zoned out into his Mindstorm set, Eve laid on her bed listening to an audiobook, and I got lost in the computer for awhile. Eventually Eve came downstairs for snack and we all migrated into the dining room, still listening to the audiobook. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen prepping the fruits and veggies from our morning outing, Eve sat at the table and colored while listening to the audio book (“A Wrinkle in Time” and she really got into it this time around!) and Lex was in and out showing off his Mindstorm creations.

Raspberry fingers! Classic. She munched on raspberries and strawberries all afternoon. :)

Here is Lex’s Mindstorm robot. If it detects an object within 40cm it fires little wooden balls at the object. You can hear it saying “object” when it detects something and “alarm” if it determines that something to be within 40cm. Lex did all of the programing on his own. At one point he said, “I could turn the sounds off and use it to guard my room!” That cracked me up! I can imagine myself walking in to his room one day and having a Mindstorm robot suddenly start shooting little balls at me. Ha!

After healthy dinners all around we finished the evening with little frozen yogurt (from the CSA pickup) sundaes. Ahh… summer vacation!

There are only three little dishes because poor Alan was not home to join us for this yummy dessert. :(

Think about how much learning is going into this little scene. Sorting shapes, sizes, colors, balance, rhythm, dance, turn taking, etc. It’s the simple things in life that bring the most pleasure.

Me, on the other hand, am seriously procrastinating. I have hours of Good Beginnings work that has to be done tonight, Alan is out playing poker, the kids are asleep and I am blogging. Hmm… I think it’s going to be a long night. I finally finished the Easter 2012 post tonight as well. Lots for you to read and see. :)

The kids LOVE their new roller skates! We went out the other day and it took half an hour to make it down the road, around the cul-de-sac, and back to our house. Reminded me of the early days, walking to “visit the fire hydrant” when they were just toddlers.

They got tired of waiting on me to tie their new skates, so they got the "How to tie your shoes" book and gave it a shot themselves. That's how eager they were to get skating!

Sibling love <3

All smiles!

I'm delighted when they both smile for the camera, even if they do have pretty goofy smiles these days. :)

We went sledding on Monday when the kids had no school. We haven’t done much of it this year, what with the weather being so wacky these days. The kids had a great time and I got to catch up with an old friend. Fun, fun.

Two litte girls, holding hands up the hill.

Old friends, together again.

Lex is learning about penguins at school and he and Eve like to play penguins at home. He teaches her what he learns. Here is Eve, pretending to be a penguin slidding on her belly down the hill.

PS. Here’s a post from sledding at their house two years ago. Cute!

PPS. It has been raining off and on ever since that afternoon so I’m glad we got some sledding in when we did! Now we have slushy lakes in the front and back yards and it keeps coming down. If the temps were a few degrees lower we’d have a lot of snow!