Summer Summary

Vi went to 3 camps this summer:

1) Covenant Camp, her fun-filled week in the woods with other kids her age

2) Lighthouse Camp, her fun-filled week with us, her fam, plus cousins

…and then there was:

3) Camp Grandma! The days and days at a time Vi would disappear to that peaceful place 6 blocks away, where she:

a) started sewing lessons with G’ma (who herself started sewing around Vi’s age)

b) helped G’ma prepare crafts for our church’s Vacation Bible School—a monumental, multitudinous task

c) took advantage of G’ma and G’pa’s significantly superior cable menu, watching made-for-tween shows such as The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, and assorted, fluffy “family movies” on Disney

d) reportedly read books, and

e) practiced trombone, often with Grandpa—offertory music at our church this coming Sunday will be a G’pa-Vi t-bone duet, with G’ma on piano

Ben’s best moments of the season included:

1. Vacation Bible Schools, plural—he and cousin Caroline, age 4, attended at least 3 other churches’ week-long programs, in addition to our own. Pearl also participated in 2 of the 4, and I’ve caught the kids singing snippets of the songs they learned at this year’s Vee-Bee-Esses. Surprisingly, one of the songs goes something like: “You shake me, You break me, You make me … Jesus!” Despite my master’s degree in theological studies (or maybe because of it), these lyrics puzzle me exceedingly, but so far I have been unable to track down the lyrics online, making the VBS theme “Son Rock Kids’ Camp” all-the-more suspicious. (Even though I’m kidding, it is a little alarming how trustingly—eagerly!—we parents submit our kids to religious instruction for the sake of a break during the Mom-I’m-bored stretch between June and September.)

2. Camp—our Lighthouse experience, where he learned to ride his 2-wheeler and collected lots of cool rocks on the beach

3. Kindergarten anticipation—This has been a summer-long activity for Ben, who gets to meet his teacher tomorrow morning. He is so excited!

Pearl’s pearls:

1. Learning to write her name…and proceeding to write it on every surface in sight!

2. Getting strong enough to carry the cats around the house (and being loved by them so much they do not scratch her).

3. Graduating to a big-kid bed. Now if we could only get her to sleep in it.

Goodnight!