Off With A Bang

 We are two weeks into summer and it is off with a bang.  I didn't get a chance to blog last week because we were off at the coast, but I'll get to that in a minute.  Let's start with summer, week 1.

Summer started in an unusual way, with a two-day friend sleepover.  We have a hard and fast "no friend sleepovers" rule in our house.  The only sleepovers my kids have had are with cousins.  As summer started, however, we had some extenuating circumstances with one of C.C.'s friends.  Her friend's parents are going through a divorce, the mom had to travel for work, and the dad works nights.  This put them in a bind and we offered to help out.

My girls were super excited about getting to break the long standing rule.  They took advantage of the time with lots of trampoline time, walks through the forest, playing games, and a trip to the church to play in the gym.  They had a great time.

Later in the week, we went with some friends to Hopscotch, which can best be described as an interactive light gallery.  The kids' favorite exhibits were the lighted ball pit and trampoline, where the lights appeared as you jumped.  It was a very cool experience, but a little sensory overload.

Saturday, we went out to the coast for Merrick's baseball tournament.  By the time we got out there, it was a whirlwind of lots of baseball with not a lot of time for much else.  In fact, the boys never even touched the beach.  The closest they came was seeing it from the hotel and on our drive to and from the field.

The girls and I were a different story.  With each game, the boys would have to be there over an hour in advance.  The girls and I would drop them off, and go to the beach.  Since we were in Lincoln City, the girls wanted to play Finders Keepers, looking for glass floats on the beach.  While we never found one, we did find a heart shaped stone tucked into a log.  We also had a great time just walking along the beach and playing in the sand.

The tournament itself was great.  We mercy ruled the first two teams and then ended up losing in the 7th inning in a nail biter to the team that would then win the tournament.  While we were bummed to go home without the ultimate "W," we made it home in time for Lundberg family dinner, complete with firepit, s'mores, and, for some, two-handed desserts.

This past week, Merrick and CC both had "summer school".  I use that term very loosely.  Carrigan's is much more like a camp.  It's a three week class called "lifelong fitness" where they play games everyday and are taking 7 fieldtrips to the park to to play disk golf.  Merrick's class was a one week leadership class.  He didn't do much learning, but earned a 1/2 credit for high school.

This also meant that Elsie and I had lots of quality time this week.  We went to a park most days and one day even when to a park day sponsored by our friend's realty group, complete with scavenger hunt, games, snow cones, and face painting.

Like I said, summer is off with a bang!  I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer holds.