Dare I say the summer is going well, so far? We all know how I hate transitions, rattling around the house, my children fighting, and no time for myself. That is all still true. David is having mini meltdowns every couple of hours, and Rose has given me many dirty looks. But otherwise, things are going really well.

playdates

I was afraid all of their friends would be in camps all summer, but we've managed to have a play date every day since we got back from our trip.

Tuesday, we hung out at Ben's house. He's a year younger than David. We really went there so I could hang out with my former work friend, Lisa, but the kids were happy to engage with Ben's toys, especially the guns.

Wednesday Emma came over. She is Rose's friend, but the two of them manage to include David without my giving them grief. We took her swimming at Mommom's house, and, of course, the cousins were there.

Thursday we were supposed to go hiking but see previous entry re Rose's warts. So, luckily, Jasper, Rose's closest friend was available. I took the three of them kite flying at Gasworks park. I lost the very pretty box kite to an evil tree, but otherwise we had a good time.

Friday, the cousins came over for lunch because my sister needed coverage. All the kids made bad guy food out of flowers and twigs. Then the cousins left and Maggie came to play. Again, this was more a date for Maggie's mom and me. As her birthday gift to me, we spent three hours cleaning out my closet. John was supposed to be on the kids and helping us, so things did not go as kid smoothly as always, but three of them have spent a lot of time together--Maggie is between them in age--and they made bracelets and played games. Then at 4:30 David and I raced off to the farmer's market where I met another good friend, and he got to spend an hour on the slides and digging in the dirt with his two closest friends, Marlyn and Clarice. I'm going to have to remember the post day camp play date.

Today we went to a birthday party with 20 kids, and then hung with the cousins at Mommom's house all afternoon.

random fun activities

swimming, playing school, picking strawberries and making strawberry sauce, flying kites, digging in the dirt, reading Harry Potter book 6, cleaning out the garage (ok that was only fun for some of us), making muffins, listening to Swallows and Amazons on cd

I think the summer is going smoothly because I'm working so hard at it (as always), they are getting older and more independent, and John has been around. He's been trying to get some work done, but he's also taking shifts. Stay tuned for next week's report when we start swim lessons, and John is gone more.