School's out

In a couple of hours, Alex will officially be on his first summer break for one week. I was fortunate enough to take off work for the closing ceremonies, and then Alex and I went out to lunch together. (where he proudly showed me his poetry, yes POETRY, that he was learning to write in the last few weeks) He marveled for a few hours that he is a FIRST GRADER, but now he’s moved on to more important things. Like enjoying the summer.

I’m still wondering, though, how it is that kindergarten is over in only a few weeks? Because it sure feels that he just started kindergarten a few weeks ago. Maybe a month or two. And how here he is, his first year of formal education completed, standing a bit taller, and a lot of learning under his belt. And writing poetry that was SOOO Alex. In one poem he compared a cut on his leg to a volcano, and in another he wrote about rock bands and rock stars. Are these the first poems of his generation’s famous poet?? Time will tell.

But just as school is out and it would be so easy to go to the pool or run in the sprinkler, the weather has turned a little chilly… in the sixties… so the boys have turned their sites to other adventures, namely hiking and pond-dipping at the Science Center, visiting playgrounds, and hanging out at Baba and Papa’s to watch trees getting cut down.

Have you ever seen such good buddies? Jameson is so attached to his Papa, and I have a hunch that the feeling is mutual.
In an attempt to keep some learning going over the summer, Alex wrote a poem at the science center. He wrote not about the joys of nature, but about how his parents don’t let him play videos games all day long. Yep, SOOO Alex.

It’s always interesting to look through the pictures on the camera to get a good idea of how the day has been spent, and to wonder about how much fun I’m missing out on. Granted, the pictures show only part of the story, because it is harder to photograph the fussing and crying and the "challenging" parts of the day. So I get the sound-bite version (or, the fast-forward-to-the-good-parts-version), which on some days isn't a bad deal.

But here’s one bit of fun I didn’t miss out on… yummy fruit smoothies enjoyed in our backyard.