Summer days

When I think about summers as a child, I recall many days spent playing at home, going to swim lessons and heading to the beach (thanks to my mom's love of tanning). We had simple summers. Rarely did we sign up for any camps--in fact, I only recall going to Zoo camp once. I've always looked back on my childhood summers as some of the best times of my childhood. I credit my mom for not over scheduling us. She let us be bored. She let us dig holes in the yard and play in the sprinklers. She let us read books upon books and (gasp!) watch tv if we wanted to. It was the best. 

Now with kids of my own, I strive to allow my kids the freedom to be bored. To invent new games. To dig holes in our yard. To run in the sprinkler (okay, maybe not that one because-drought). But you get it--I haven't scheduled them for every camp known to man (although at some point of each day I think of how nice it would be to have them out of my hair), nor have we gone on and elaborate trips or visited many pay-per-visit playgrounds or museums.

 We wake up in the morning and choose what we want to do. Sometimes this means we stay in pjs watching a Scooby Doo til ten, and others it means we throw on our tank tops and shorts  and head to the park at the beach. Sometimes we pack lunches, and others we stop for corn dogs at weinerschnitzel before heading home for naps. 

Our backyard has seen my kids playing in it from sun up til sun down. Our skateboards and scooters have had mileage put on them  (can't say the same for Sal's two wheeler- he's still not game for trying) as they race down the sidewalks looking for treasures aka bottle caps. The kids have assembled a balance beam out of unused 2x4's and they tiptoe down the beam so "alligators don't get them". 

We've gone through countless boxes of Popsicles and bandaids. We've done two sessions of swim lessons and finally have a child who's happy to submerge his face under water. We've got a sixteen month old who practices his climbing skills on our back wall, and a two year old who learned a "booty bounce" on their trampoline. 

All of this in thanks to our simple summer.   They've had the freedom to float from one thing to another as their little mind changes from one idea to another. 

They're just kids being kids...enjoying summer.