Summer's Finally Here!!

Last week was the end of the school year for my two elementary aged kiddos, which meant that every day of the week they came home and within seconds my straightened home became a never-ending pile!


Each and every day of the week they unloaded the contents of the elementary school onto my kitchen table. You know, journals, workbooks, pencils, markers, crayons they'd used all year at school plus tons of end-of-the year notices, report cards, crafts, gifts from teachers, etc., etc.! I was inside the school on the last day helping with the kindergarten party and it occurred to me how bare and empty the school seemed and then I remembered, "Oh yeah, all the stuff that used to line the walls of the school hallways and fill the classrooms is now in my home on my kitchen table!"

The last day of school seemed like a good enough occasion to try out Mint Oreo Brownies. They were yummy and certainly super easy, which is perfect for a crazy week like the last week of school!


And what better way to celebrate the beginning of summer than with a new Slip-N-Slide?!!

Something else I love about summer are the black-eyed peas we can pick by the basketful from our very own backyard garden! They cook up super yummy (with the glorious addition of bacon, of course) and my 5 year old daughter is the best bean snapper/sheller! Her brothers are way too impatient for such a task, they help with about 3 beans and then scurry off leaving just me and my girl for a good half hour of uninterrupted time together!


But, my very favorite part of summer so far has been swimming laps at our neighborhood pool with my 2 oldest kids. My son's been a good swimmer for a few years but this is the first summer my 5 year daughter old can really do laps, like making it all the way across without stopping, doing the side breathing and everything!!! I'm so proud of her and so excited that both my big kids LOVE to swim! It is a sport of my youth. I was a very serious swimmer in high school, on the swim team and swam two times a day, every day for years. There's just nothing like sharing that sport I still enjoy with my kids! And it helps that although my 8 year old son is getting really fast, I'm still faster than he is. Lately as his interest in science and chemistry has gone through the roof, often I feel like I fall short of his expectations, me with my biomedical science degree cannot answer many of his science questions. Oh how much I've forgotten! But the swimming always comes back to me no matter how long its been; he still looks up to my swimming abilities! That's a joy I plan on savoring while I can!

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