Sunday, June 1, 2008

This and That


Today is the first Sunday of the kids' summer vacation. It hardly seems possible that the school year is finished already!! Chad completed his first year of Jr. High with extremely high honors. In fact, the only B anywhere on his report card was in P.E. Which actually surprises me, because he's super athletic, but there it was. Bella did remarkably well, and passed right into 3rd grade. She had 3 B's and the rest A's. And Ana "graduated" into 1st Grade. Man....time is going so fast, I can hardly stand it. As a child, you just want everything to speed up so you can grow up. Now, I can't seem to make it slow down enough!!

The girl's are both spending the summer playing softball. This is Bella's 2nd year, and I think she has found her sport. She has the same coach as last year. And Ray is such a good teacher. The team is mostly 7 year olds, with only 2 that are older. It will indeed be a learning year for us. But Ray told me that Bella's going to be his little "Stunner". She'll be batting clean-up, and he may even start her pitching!

This is Ana's first year of softball. And it's hard for me to help her. First, the shoulder is still giving me some grief. But Ana's a lefty, and it's just so awkward for me to try and teach her certain things. Like batting! But she's picking it up in leaps and bounds.


Chad isn't playing ball this summer. He's waiting for football to start in August. But he is getting a season pass to the pool. He will be 12 this summer, and all his friends go to the pool daily. I guess it's time for me to let go just a little and let him be a kid. He did SO WELL in school this year, he definitely deserves a little summer off.

Tuesday is the kick-off to the Summer Reading Program at our library. This year's theme is "Get Into the Game". The kids are really excited about it. Our library does such a good job with the kids. They offer fun things all summer long: movies, parties, cook-outs....and fun little prizes. And the end of the summer is a big pool party for all those that complete the reading. It's just an added bonus, because the kids love to read. Well....the girls do anyway. Chad is more of an "instant gratification" kind of kid. He loves movies, and hates to take up so much time reading. At least till he does it. This year for AR, he was even recommending books to ME. He's a fantasy kind of kid (Yeah!), and found some wonderful books: Peter and the StarCatchers, The Thief Lord, Inkheart, and the Charlie Bone Series, to name a few. But I think he'll be lazy this summer and skip the books. But I'll keep trying!


There's a summer reading program for adults as well. But I am already making lists of the books I want to read!! Since we aren't going on a vacation this summer, we'll be around for the whole program. Should be alot of fun (in a geekish sort of way!!)

How about you guys? Any summer reading plans for the family? For you?

8 comments:

Laura said...

Softball games, days at the pool, summer reading--sounds like you and your kiddos have a great summer ahead! I fondly remember doing all those things as a child and it really doesn't seem like it was that long ago. How time flies!

Stephanie said...

Laura - don't forget the work, work, work part!! We'll find some time for everything this summer, if all goes well!! Man, I MISS summer vacation!

Andi said...

Summer reading programs are such fun! I'm sure the kids will have a blast. Now I need to see if our local library has a program for the adults. hehe

Stephanie said...

Andi - Our library has a great kid's program. My son is even volunteering 4 hours a week. I Heart the library!

chrisa511 said...

This school year did fly by! My little brother just got out too and it seems like he just started. Sounds like the kiddos have a fun summer ahead of them with sports and books :) And the adult reading program sounds cool too. I'll have to see if my library has one too...not that I really need that AT ALL with all of the challenges I'm in. I remember loving the summer reading programs so much when I was a kid though. They were great!

Debi said...

Oh, I'm soooo jealous! Our kids still have 3 1/2 weeks of school left! I am so ready for it to be over!

Our library has a great summer read program, too...starting in another 3 1/2 weeks. (June just doesn't seem to qualify as summer around here.)

Hope you all have the best summer yet!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I hope you guys have a great summer. And there is nothing wrong with being a geek! :) I loved my summer reading programs at the library--I'm hoping to get my brother involved in reading this summer, but he's like your Chad (same age, too, actually) where he would much rather be playing playing playing than take the few minute to stop and read for a bit.

I hope your shoulder starts feeling better soon! Seems like this has been going on for a long time. :(

Carl V. Anderson said...

Where in the heck does the time go?!?!?! Before you know it your kids will be back in school and we will be talking about the fall!