Summer pastimes

The first full week of July is over, but there are many more to come. July is a long month, as is August. When I was a kid, I thought July was the best month ever -- partly because it was so long, since that meant more days to play, more long light evenings to play outside.

I try to remember that, to live in the moment with my boys, who are enjoying everything this summer has to offer. When I hear the song of the ice cream truck I try to say "Oh goodie," instead of "Oh no," which is the first thought that comes to mind. I try to think, "Oh what a lovely summer we're having," instead of "How many more weeks until kindergarten starts?"

How do we spend our long summer days?

We go swimming... Swim lessons started up again this week, and the twins are in a new class with two new fellow students and a new (male) teacher. On Tuesday, he had all four kids hang on to the side of the pool and practice kicking, and when they all kicked very hard, he jumped over a wall -- and then pretended that they had kicked him over the wall. Boos swallowed this story whole and have been repeating it to me ever since. I'm so glad they're learning to swim and loving it.

We go to the park... Though we have our favorites, such as the rocket ship park, and we walk down to our neighborhood park most evenings, we continue to explore new parks, and it seems as though every week I hear about another. Recently we discovered Foothills Community Park, in the northernmost part of town. It's an enormous park, and runs right up into the foothills, very attractive. The first time we went, we had the park to ourselves, but when we returned this week, there was a day camp recreating there. Baby B was shy, but Baby A joined right in with the big kids, pushing the ring (see below) while other kids stood on it.

 Later, he relaxed on a bouncy swing.

We go to the library... We've continued going to the main Boulder Public Library every Monday morning, and that seems to work out well. But in our neighborhood we also have the phenomenon of Little Free Libraries -- three of them within walking distance of our house. There's a very good one in front of Creekside Elementary School (which I don't have a picture of). This one is at Martin Park. I think this is where I picked up a nice copy of Steve Jobs' biography...

...and this one is in front of a house near the park. We found Beezus and Ramona here the other day and have been reading it avidly ever since.

I think you're supposed to put the books back eventually, or at least put other books in. I need to go through my collection and pull some out to donate. It's not a big issue, though, I think, because these libraries are always very well stocked with other people's books.

We play games... We're amassing quite a large collection of board games, and Baby B in particular LOVES to play them all. He even talked us into bringing the bird bingo game to the park one evening...

...so we played it on a not-too-dirty picnic table in the picnic shelter. And then there's Qwirkle, which I bought at Target after our friends Michelle and Chris introduced it to us on their visit.

Baby B wakes up in the morning wanting to play Qwirkle, and Baby A, jealous, begs to play it as well. I know this should make me happy -- I like board games -- but playing board games with five-year-olds is very stressful. Especially a game like Qwirkle, which involves thought. I end up having to make everyone's moves for them, and I get all stressed out about it, especially when Baby A decides to use his six tiles to make a face and thus won't play any of them when it's his turn.

We eat ice cream... Hardly a day goes by that we don't pay a visit to Dairy Queen, one of the many premium ice cream places in town, or the frozen yogurt place. In a pinch there are popsicles and ices from the freezer. And then there's that darned ice cream truck, driving all over town playing its song. Today it DROVE DOWN OUR STREET. No, we did not buy from it (though we do usually get a treat when we encounter it at parks). I don't want to encourage it. If we're not careful, pretty soon it'll be driving back and forth in front of our house all day long.

We observe nature... Today as we were driving to the rocket ship park, a doe and her fawn walked across 30th Street in front of us. Boos are getting fairly blase about seeing deer around town, but the fawn was something new. "I never saw a baby deer before in my LIFE," Baby A told me.

We also enjoy feeding the squirrels in the backyard, though Mom thinks this is a bad idea (speaking of encouraging things).

Pretty soon someone is going to get bit and then we'll have to have rabies shots. So say I, but no one pays any attention. Getting rabies shots -- hey, there's an idea for a summer activity. We're also flirting with West Nile virus, leaving water standing around in the water table and wading pool. It's mostly just me who gets bit by the mosquitoes, though, and I must be immune. Scratch scratch.

The twins are hard, they run us ragged from sunup to sundown, we never get anything done -- but it's a pretty idyllic summer nonetheless. Trying to fix the good times in my memory, trying to make happy times for all of us.