A few quick notes from summer 2013.

This was Claire’s break between first and second grades.  Only Claire’s schedule changes for the summer so far.  Molly does not have a summer break, being a full time pre-school student.

We decided to try out several different camps this summer for Claire to see what worked best.  Some full day camps, some half day with a sitter the rest of the day, some in between.  We basically have to experiment since up until now we mostly just used the good ol’ day care.

Over the summer, Claire’s weeks were split up like this:

• Four full day camps
• Four half-day camps, usually morning with a sitter after lunch
• Most of the camps were art-oriented, at Claire’s request, with a week of gymnastics, a week of cooking, and  a week of science.
• Two weeks of vacation with the family to see family in “both Washington’s” — Washington DC and Washington state

To be honest, I think the summer was a little tough on Claire, who went from camp to camp on an irregular schedule and did not get to see a lot of her friends, some of whom were out of town for cooler climates or otherwise out of touch.

I know the summer was tough on me.  The camps all started at 9:00 or 9:30, while my daily call for work was at 9:00 am.  So I would  drop Claire off an immediately get on a meeting on my cell phone for the drive home to work.  And I would have to pick Claire up at odd times in the middle of the day (12:00, 1:00, 3:00, whatever).  This is on top of Molly’s pick up and drop off at different times and places.  This got old week after week.

On the plus side, Claire and I had a little time together each morning after dropping off Molly and before her camp started.  We would get breakfast and do a little studying to help keep Claire sharp over the summer break.  We would have a Smoothie and a bagel at Panera and then have Claire read or do some writing.  That was pretty sweet.

Since most of the public pools are only open when school is out for summer, I resolved to take advantage of the limited swimming time we had available.  The plan was to take the girls swimming every Friday after school/work.  We always went to the little circular pool at West Austin Park.  We packed a picnic or picked up something from a drive through (not as much fun!) then swam for an hour or so before heading home to see Kit and go to bed.  This was a fun time for us all, except it got a little frustrating for Claire at times since I had to be 100% “on” Molly, who cannot swim, so I could not really play with Claire or even just swim with her.  I did not have any free hands or attention while trying to keep Molly alive and what not.  I basically stood there holding Molly while Claire entertained herself.  I think Claire liked the picnic best or those rare moments when I could actually play with her too.  Anyways, the goal was to do the swimming thing every Friday, which turned out to be 4 or 5 times total, with traveling, guests, other engagements, etc. often intervening.

So there you go — a sunny, fun-filled, stress-free summer!  Well, it was sunny anyways.  And intermittently fun and stress-free.