We are having a glorious Minnesota summer. In my humble opinion, the weather has been absolutely perfect. But that's not hard for me to say, given that we moved back during one of the worst winters in record history. Also consider that for the last six years, we lived through the cool and rainy Belgian summers.
I have to admit, I was nervous going into summer. In Belgium, the last day of school is at the end of June, leaving only two months for summer vacation. Looking at the calendar as our last day of school approached the first week of June, I got nervous. What was I going to do with all of those days?
We had a great start. John took Monkey to Alopeciapolloza in upstate New York, leaving them a few days to tour NYC. The day after they got back, I took AJ back to Belgium for a week (more on that in an upcoming post). We had a week back together again as a family for the 4th of July festivities, and then John and I took Miss B to my cousin's wedding in Alabama. Each kid got one-on-one travel time, and the ones left behind got to bond with each other (and Grandma Sue at one point or another.) It was great.
Except for when they were all back together under the same roof, they had to learn how to get along all over again. I shouldn't have been surprised, the same thing happens to me and John after he's been on a long trip. For one solid week, it was a constant battle. I think we are through the worst of it now.
Now, we start the summer camps. Last week, Miss B had a French Immersion camp. We also finished up two weeks of swimming lessons. Next week, Miss B gets another French camp, and Monkey gets to go to Theater. This week, we have absolutely nothing. No swimming lessons, no soccer practice, no soccer tryouts, nothing. I'm so excited!
There's just one thing. I've heard people out and about, starting to complain that the summer is almost over. To that I shout, "It is NOT! We still have one month left! And it's the best part! We haven't even had the State Fair yet!"
If this were Belgium, we went back to school after two months of summer. If you translate that to our summer this year, we would be finished with our two months of summer and we would be starting school this week.
But instead, we still have one month left! Yay Summer! (Check back with me in three weeks, I'm sure I will be saying "Yay! School!") I think it will be just enough time…which will make it a perfect summer.
