Sunday, June 14, 2009

Schooooool's Out....For.....Summah

Tomorrow marks the first day of summer vacation. I am both excited and dreading it at the same time. By ten o'clock tomorrow morning the excitement will be long gone and dread will be the only remaining emotion. But for now, the excitement remains.

What will we do all summer long? The possibilities are endless. Swimming, that's a given. We spend almost every day at Grandma's pool. Swimming lessons, for sure. It gets us up and out the door every day and my kids think it's something I do fun for them, which earns me bonus points. They haven't caught on that it's school...for swimming. Please don't tell them.

Summer vacations are out...we did our big trip around Spring Break. (Remember Disneyland? Pretty much ate up the vacation funds...and then some.) But I still have high hopes of making this a rockin' summer vacation. Picnics, parks, play dates, library, sprinkler parks, softball games, water parks, BBQ's, boating, birthday parties, family reunions, slip and slides, family dinners, etc. I have the schedule all mapped out in my head, interspersed with things like piano practice and reading and all that stuff. It plays out something like a family sitcom from the 80's.

And then I remember how summer vacation at our house actually goes. My kids, standing next to my bed at 10:00 asking when I'll get up and make them breakfast, because after five cartoons they're really hungry. Me yelling that I'm going to put a stop to their incessant fighting right this very second before they think they're going to spend all summer talking to each other that way. Me dragging them to the pool threatening the whole way that if they continue to act that way we'll turn around and go home. Me sitting by the pool nursing a headache telling my kids every five minutes for an hour that it's time to go. Me coming home and ignoring my disaster of a house because my head is throbbing and the heat has drained me so I'm going to take a nap. Cartoons, back on. Me telling myself that tomorrow I'll make sure they sit down and read some books.

Well, it's the thought that counts, right?

10 comments:

MichelleB said...

Did you just read my mind? I seriously need to copy and paste this post to my blog. Oh yea what blog?

MARISA said...

You'll have a fantastic summer!

ps. we went to the library...picked out books, think we've read them once!

polka dots said...

Oh...so true.

tharker said...

You're too funny. I was telling Spencer a couple of weeks ago how excited I was for school to get out, and I just wanted the kids home. He quickly reminded me how that excited feeling would fade after a couple of weeks. I'm glad that he's the realistic one ;)

It was great to see you and Bill the other night! (And yes, I'm still embarrased about the comment that my husband made ;)

Amy said...

lol... I feel the exact same way. And how did you know what goes on daily in my house? lol...

andrea said...

So true, so true. Now imagine that your husband is also home with you.. sounds wonderful, until you remember you can't possibly accomplish anything while he is there asking if you want to watch a movie or play Guitar Hero.

But THIS summer, we'll actually get up and out and DO something. :-) (hahaha...)

Kristi said...

I can relate. But I still have high hopes that THIS year, paragraph 3 will be closer to reality than paragraph 4. Maybe I am slightly delusional.

Marilyn said...

You hit the head on the nail. I am always so excited for school to be out because then it means sleeping in, no homework and tons of fun. But by day one, I am wondering what I was so excited about because it goes more like this:

fighting
whining
crying
sassing
fighting some more

But I still love summer, and the chance it gives us to try to get along each day :)

Heidi D said...

I had a post with the same tittle on Friday.

To help curb the inevitable fighting and boredom of summer, I came up with the 'Calendar of Fun!'.

This is our 3rd summer using it and it works pretty well.

Shayla said...

Hmmm...I think you might have a hidden camera up in our house, how did you know that's EXACTLY the way things go for us, too? Well, at least we have swim lessons to get us out of bed before 10:00 in the morning...no bets on whether we're giving up our afternoon naps, though, right?