We are now in our third week of summer break. I realized I never posted about Eli's last day of school, which was May 27. He said goodbye to his teacher for the last two years, Mrs. Zerr. She was great for Eli and really helped him develop socially and academically in the ways that he needed. We are going to miss her!
So here are some pictures that describe these past few weeks of summer break. We've had some interesting weather, including a hail storm that I'm sure sent all the roofing companies into a tizzy with all the new jobs to be solicited.
We spent a day at the zoo, and I took this one picture to prove it.
The kids have been enjoying "free lunch" many weekdays. The summer free lunch program extends to all children ages 1-17 regardless of income, residence, etc. This year the program is administered at several City of Westminster locations, including the Rec Center and the Countryside Pool, which is only a few minutes away from our house. In the past, the free lunch locations have been faraway elementary schools, so it's nice to have it close by this year. The lunch is nothing spectacular, but it is hot, and the kids beg me to take them. It saves me from having to make lunch, and goodness knows I will take advantage of any opportunity to avoid preparing food these days.
The boys have been freezing things in water in plastic baggies, like money, smashed pennies, bugs, etc.
A consistent element to our summer has been park playgroup on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Someone in our ward put together a schedule of parks in the area for us to meet at, so twice a week we meet at the park and the kids play while the moms get to visit. We've gone I think every day except for maybe one, and it's fun to visit a new park every time.
Another big part of our summer has been the library summer reading programs. I signed the kids up for the reading programs at three different libraries, so they have their reading logs where they keep track of how much they've read and they get prizes once they've hit a certain number of hours. I started reading Harry Potter to the kids, and that's been a lot of fun. Eli sits and listens intently, while the other two usually play quietly and half listen, but it's been a great experience so far. Once we finish the first book, we're going to watch the movie with Eli. I'm looking forward to that probably as much as he is!
This is not really specific to summer, but I wanted to remember it so I snapped a picture. The kids like to play this game in the bath with a little terry-cloth Elmo: they lay Elmo down on the side of the tub and tuck him in with a "blanket" (washcloth) so he can go to sleep. Then they take a cupful of water and dump it on Elmo, and say, "Oh no, Elmo wet his bed!" Then I have to take the wet blanket off the distraught Elmo, comfort him and wring the pee out, then get a dry washcloth and tuck him back into bed. They get a huge kick out of it every single time.
