Summertime

Summer, summer, summertime

Time to sit back and unwind...

Or something like that. Summer is in full swing here. It's June 24th and we've already been camping, camping in the living room (multiple times), swimming in Grammy & Grandpa's hot tub (twice), to the beach (twice also), a parade, watched fireworks, and planted veggies. Not to mention all the yummy food we've consumed: hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, s'mores, popcorn, ice cream and donuts; oh and we've enjoyed our first backyard grown carrot. So far, I'm guessing it's Antonio's best summer yet.

He still gets to enjoy a trip to the ocean, 4th of July, his birthday, day camp, baseball games and another camping trip! I have, however, decided to opt for a low key, small birthday party for Antonio this year. I hope he is ok with that. I figure this may be my last chance before he makes new friends at school and wants them all over for a birthday party. He'll get his birthday party at daycare that Rosemary always throws for each kid for their birthday, so he'll get to celebrate with his friends there.

Meanwhile we are still trying to prep for Kindergarten. I am still not 100% sold on him being ready but I am having faith; and its still only June. Usually people say, "a mother knows her child best" and thats probably true with the exception of Moms like me. I am a terrible, decision maker; probably the worst. And I second (third, forth and so on) guess myself all the time. It's terrible and I hate it but I do. That probably goes hand in hand with my anxieties. :/

Moving on.

So he might just be ready like both his Pre-k teachers and Rosemary say but I am just not sold on it and probably won't be until the school year is done or at least half way done and we've gotten a good feel on his he's doing. In the meantime, we are trying to get him as ready as possible. He is going to be the kind of kid who refuses to do homework but does the work at school, no problem. When I ask him to practice writing him name he comes up with every reason why he can't. Claims he doesn't know how even though he wrote it twice a day during school. And getting him to write letters or practice sounding out words is impossible but on his own he tries to sound out words a lot. Sigh....

Next up on our summer to do list is a trip to Ocean Shores. We are so excited. Antonio has never been to the ocean except for in California and well, as most of us know, that is completely different! So rain or shine we are excited, well I'd take clouds or blue sky.  Just no rain please, we had that camping. :)

Camping

We went camping for the second time with Antonio this weekend, and once again it was a succeess. We went again with my friend Erin, her husband, Pete, and their son, Jack, who will be 6 in October. The boys played very well together and happily there wasn't any "fighting". :) We went to Ike Kinswa State Park which is down by Centraila so it is about as close to "in the middle" for both of us as it can be. The weather was cold and wet but we had a great time.

Last year, we went in August and there was a burn ban so there were no campfires...at all. It was weird. Happily, Antonio didn't know the difference since it was his first time camping but hot dogs, s'mores etc were done over the camp stove. :( And after, it was dark it was weird without a campfire. Happily it wasn't cold too. This year, there was no burn ban so we were able to enjoy the fire, and s'mores. Antonio's favorite part was roasting marshmallows; he loved it. He also enjoyed helping Pete tend to the fire, whether Pete wanted him to or not. ;) Pete was a good sport about it.

We were there Saturday - Monday which turned out great. Saturday was crowded, every site was full, but the majority left Sunday morning. On one side of us was a baby, young baby. It cried most of the evening/night Saturday night. I felt bad for them yet was so thankful they were leaving the next morning! We all were. I verified their reservation was over the next day and it was. Sunday it rained off and on all day so most people left earlier on (checkout is 1:00) and by noon we were one of maybe 5 or 6 site filled. The closet one to us was around the corner and 3 or 4 sites down so it was nice. We all appreciated the lack of neighbors and decided we should always plan it this way. The boys ran around exploring, finding (and creating) new trails and making noise, which was fine since we didn't have any close neighbors. We were very close to the bathrooms which we also appreciated and since the sites are around a loop there were many ways to get there. Sunday over to Monday we maybe saw 2 or 3 people walking to the bathroom, again, so nice. This years site seemed much bigger than last years and after looking at last years pictures, I am pretty sure it was. Much more room!

The only thing that would've made it better was warmer weather. However, with the colder weather we stayed close to the fire most of the time which in turn allowed us to spend more time together. Last year it was much warmer and we were inclined to go off and explore more; I'd take somewhere in between. When we leave I always wish I had more time with them, especially Erin because for some reason I feel like we never get any good chatting time in. Oh well. All in all, our 2nd annual camping trip with The Eberlein's was a good one! Already looking forward to next years!

The boys last year, August 2013

The boys this year, June 2014 (still silly as ever)

My little family in front of our tent!