WE MADE IT. It’s the last day of school, and we have officially survived the most wacky school year ever.
The boys aren’t up yet and I don’t have any “last day of school pics” yet, so here is a throwback to their 1st day:
Talk about a lot of ups and downs. If you recall, the boys had to start school virtually, after their planned in-person start was suddenly uprooted. Then, a couple weeks later, they were able to go back in person….though in a very different way from “normal”. They were virtual again from Thanksgiving through mid January out of precaution, then home again for a quarantine in April.
I am soooooooo impressed with how resilient kids everywhere have been. It’s not like anyone came around and asked the kids what they wanted to do or how they really even felt about it all. (Obviously, that wasn’t really an option. But my point is- their entire year revolved around some adult just telling them constantly, “Oh, change of plans! This is what you are going to do now. Back to virtual. Nope, now in person. But, you can’t play with that group at recess. Wear your mask at all times. Eat lunch behind a plexiglass. Etc.”).
I have the utmost appreciation for our school administration and the teachers, too (cannot even imagine everything teachers went through this year figuring out the virtual/in-person/hybrid stuff…).
Mostly, I just feel so proud of everyone!!! Like, we all made it!! The kids did it! The teachers did it! The parents did it! I think everyone seems to have turned out okay so far, too. 🙂
Summer!
Now, bring on summer. I intentionally kept their schedule a little “lighter” than I have other years.
I listened to a few podcasts recently where people were discussing their family summer plans. In one, the host listed off something like EIGHT different camps the kids were attending!! 🤯 (not counting a couple family vacations in there, too.) I know many people rely on those for childcare purposes, so I guess I get it…but whoa! That sounds absolutely exhausting to me and I kind of think my kids would hate it. (Though I’m sure the camps are super cool.)
I really think my kids are most looking forward to just…hanging out and playing outside with their friends. Riding their bikes around, probably some swimming, games of kickball or whatever they all play over at the park together and eating freeze pops after. And, video games. 😉
For activities, they still have plenty in the mix, but I don’t think it will be all consuming.
Ethan goes to camp at the end of June with his friend (traditional summer camp). He is doing a YMCA track club twice a week, too, starting when soccer ends in a few weeks. Both boys have piano lessons plus some music/art enrichment classes in place of lessons some weeks (part of the music school curriculum). Ethan is going to do either 4 or 8 private swim lessons, since he’s just not really the strongest swimmer (he doesn’t want to do this, but I’m making him). I might try to squeeze in a few tennis lessons again for him if I can with his old coach, since I know he’s missing tennis.
Asher has swim team which is 4 nights a week plus some full weekend away meets, so that alone will keep him busy! He is doing swim camp in a couple weeks, plus traditional camp the 1st week of August. He has the piano/art classes like Ethan, plus he also has 5 virtual band lessons too. He wants to do those online drawing classes, too. I’m sure he will also want to keep working out with his uncle many mornings. 🙂
4th of July week always feels busy with festivities, and then we have 2 weeks of vacation in August!
I’m hopeful that we will be just structured enough to stay active and engaged with some activities, but have plenty of downtime to enjoy SUMMER.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my own childhood summer memories. I always think of them at this time of year! 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
This post (and a bunch of other older ones) showed up in Feedly today! So the problem may be solved? At least for now! 😉 I know that has been a source of frustration for you/tough to solve.
Our summers don’t look all that different for our kids yet since they aren’t school aged. They are still a ways away from school so I haven’t even though about summer child care yet but I think our daycare has opened a summer program for school-aged kids, but it’s at a different location that is further away so I am not sure if we will do that or not? We’ll see. I don’t think multiple camps would work for us – too much change in schedule/driving/etc. I don’t think we will ever have a nanny – I feel like I’d need one if we had our kids in a bunch of camps? My husband and I both ideally need to be working by 7:30 so the logistics of that sounds rough… But we will see what we end up doing when the time comes to have childcare. This summer is going to be a little less “fun” for us because we have a baby’s unpredictable nap schedule to work with, and he naps 3x’s/day and can only handle being awake for about 2.5-3 hours. So it’s hard to go places/plan things. We will go up to my parents lake home a couple of times. That’s kind of about it for plans. I am glad that the wading pool by our park is open this summer. We might hit that up this weekend since it’s going to be like 97!!! Last summer we went to the beach quite a bit, but it’s a further walk and just in general more messy than a wading pool!
But yay for the last day of school. I imagine your kids are excited! And huge props to the teachers and administrators for getting through the past year. It has been HARD.
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Ahh, thanks for letting me know about Feedly!! Yes, it has been beyond exasperating to say the least. I had basically given up on it, for now…sounds like the ultimate fix may require changing my hosting service, which I just have not had time to look at yet/ deal with since it sounds confusing. No clue why it suddenly worked today! Fingers crossed it keeps going for at least a while, or until I can figure out the host switching thing!
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Hey there,
Just an fyi, I noticed in my Feedly that it still seems to be doing the “dump a bunch of posts” thing for your blog again. It’s so strange! So, 2, 3, or even 5 days’ worth of posts will show up. Which means I comment late, since I get the subscription emails for the new daily posts, but never have the opportunity to comment at that time.
So you’re showing up – yay! But it’s just kind of weird in that it doesn’t always show your posts on the days that you actually post them.
Sorry you have had so many issues. 😦
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Summer time is really about relax and unstructured days, so your plan sounds really good. And I agree it has been a hard school year for everyone, kids parents and teachers. We don’t know what will happen to school in august, hopefully starting some hybrid form. It will depend on covid cases and our crazy president.
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Wishing you guys the best fun summer!!
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Wishing you and your family a very happy summer! Sounds like you have a nice mix of activities and down time to look forward to. Right now, I’m enjoying lots of mini-adventures with Avi around town as well as lots of down time at home. Very grateful to have the time home with her to catch my breath after this school year. She can do so much more at this age than she could last summer, plus so much more is open!
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Yes, I was so excited to see you back in my Feedly today! Woohoo!
Is it silly that I kind of wish we could rewind to last summer when we were still under stay at home orders. I think after the last year plus of thing being “closed down” / restricted I have gotten used to a slower way of life. I actually got really sick this week, I think due to stress. I ran a fever for three days straight. I was just utterly exhausted. Whenever I could I would just nap. But I had so much work going on, I couldn’t take the days off (thanks to working from home, I feel bad taking the day to be “sick”). Now, I worry that because we are “returning to normal”, people are trying to make up for the “lost time”. I can’t do it all, so I am having to choose to keep my life a little quieter. 🤷♀️🤷♀️
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I totally understand that!! I am very happy about MANY things returning to normal, but I honestly haven’t found myself craving “social” interaction that much either. I mean, I’m glad to be able to go out and do things with the boys, my husband, my parents…my little circle. But I haven’t felt an overwhelming desire to go to gatherings or get together with every friend or anything either. I have enjoyed many things about the slower pace of covid life, too, really. I’m glad my Feedly worked the other day! No guarantees it will continue…seems something is still messed up and I just haven’t had time to dive further into it now. UGH. Literally makes me want to pull my hair out! If you don’t see me in Feedly for a while, feel free to just pop in to my site or subscribe by email!! 🙂 Hope you’re feeling better!
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