Forever Summer

Wish it could be. . .Forever Summer. . .wish it could be. . .forever summer!

Melanie attended a two week drama camp this summer at her school. At the end of the two weeks they put on an entire musical production entitled Forever Summer with 7 songs and dance routines they had learned. Each child of the 20 3rd-5th graders had a speaking part as well. I recorded the whole show, but at 28 minutes, it's too long for YouTube and I haven't figured out how to compress it. So below you will see the final song and curtain call of the show. Melanie is in a pink skirt and jacket and starts out in the middle.

The play was the perfect theme to our summer. I also wish it could be forever summer. In the play the teacher on the first day back at school is asking her students what they did over the summer. Melanie's lines for the play sum it up pretty well:

If it's proof you're after, let's flash back to the past

To a one room school house and a sad sack class

It was the first day back to school you see

And school was the last place they wanted to be.

The answers for the teacher were everything from going to a baseball game (Take Me Out to the Ballgame musical number), to going to the beach (By the Sea, By the Sea), attending a 4th of July parade (When the Saints Go Marching In), going fishing (Crawdad Hole) and visiting New York (The Streets of New York). Very classic ways to spend a summer vacation.

It got me to thinking. . .what would Melanie say if her teacher on her first day back on Tuesday asks her those same things. What did she and Kylie do this summer?
1. Trip to Vermont
2. Trip to Kansas
3. Learned to play classic games like Pick up Sticks, Marbles, Dominoes, the Game of Life, String Games (Cat's Cradle, Cup and Saucer, Eiffel Tower, Jacob's Ladder - just Cat's Cradle for Kylie)
4. Read 6 Magic Tree House books (Melanie)
5. Had a ton of sleepovers, playdates and beach days!
6. Took swimming lessons, drama camp, jump roping, Vacation Bible School and doggie camp (Princess Ballerina camp for Kylie)
7. Finished summer workbooks
8. Dressed as a firecracker for the 4th of July
9. Survived a wild and crazy 4th of July cookout at our house
10. Said goodbye to a very good friend


And what did I do this summer?
1. Numbers, 1,2,3,9 and 10 above count for me too!
2. Got my throat stretched and started on a myriad of medications
3. Got reacquainted with an old friend
4. Added several new words to my vocabulary - tomtom GPS, iPhone, Pandora, Shazam
5. Started Facebook and have acquired 49 friends
6. Read too many books to count. . .probably 2 or 3 a week
7. Taught Vacation Bible School
8. Huey Lewis concert and a few other fun nights out with friends
9. Finished writing another novel
10. Watched the 2008 Olympic Games

All in all a very good, complete and busy summer. I will be sad to see it come to an end. But I think we feel fulfilled and are ready to dive back into our school year routine. Melanie starts 3rd grade on Tuesday, Kylie has one more week and starts kindergarten officially on Sept 9th.

Wish it could be. . .Forever Summer. . .wish it could be. . .forever summer!

Drama Camp

The Land of "Ahs"

It's always good to go home again. Melanie, Kylie and I just got back from our annual trip to my hometown of Lansing, Kansas. We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends and it was bittersweet to come back to the Cape to vacuuming, laundry, groceries, back to school planning, etc, etc, etc. . .

The first thing Melanie and Kylie said when we got to Kansas last Tuesday, was, "when can we see Alex?" Alex is my brother's little boy, their 4 year old cousin. So, Wednesday we trekked to Overland Park (suburb of KC) and spent the day at Alex's house. They swam, played games and just generally had a great time.

Melanie, Alex and Abigail
That night I had a wonderful eye exam with my buddy, Kim who fixed me up good as new with some miracle eye drops for my allergies and new contacts. I felt like a new person. After my new eyes were in place, we went out with some of her friends for some food and a movie (Pineapple Express).

Thursday was spent touring Leavenworth (Leavenworth and Lansing are kind of like Sandwich and Forestdale - sort of). First up was the Parker Carousel, a refurbishment of a real old fashioned carousel that used to be manufactured in Leavenworth. (In fact if you have been in Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, you will see a print of a Parker Carousel from Leavenworth on the wall outside of the carousel nearest the art history room). Next, we went to a museum that I always loved as a kid, the Carroll Mansion. It has wonderful Victorian era memorabilia and shows how the rich and elite used to live back in the days of new electric lamps and indoor plumbing.

Riding the rabbits at the Parker Carousel

The "heroic" big black dog outside the Carroll Mansion

Abraham Lincoln once stood on these steps to give a speech

Friday was spent at the Overland Park Arboretum, (free!) near Alex's house. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous and was in full bloom. We took tons of pictures.

An interesting frog sculpture

Lemonade anyone?

Aunt Freddie, the kids and MomThe Medicine Wheel hut

From there we took Alex home to Lansing with us for a sleepover with his cousins. They played non-stop and had a great time.

We took him back to O.P. the next day to meet up with his parents and for a trip to the can't miss Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. Deanna Rose is a place we have gone every single time we have been back to Kansas. I WISH there was somewhere just remotely comparable to it here in Massachusetts. It's an amazing (and FREE) place to take the kids. Tons of animals that depict Kansas' regional flare including buffalo (the state animal), prairie dogs, bobcats, bald eagles, pigs, horses, goats, cows, fish, etc, etc, etc. . .All this is combined with beautiful gardens typical to Kansas and walking trails. You can rent a fishing pole to fish in the pond (you catch about a dozen fish, but throw them all back), take a hayride, ride ponies, feed the goats from a milk bottle, milk a cow, be a student in a one room school house, tour a wigwam and tee pees, mine for gold, tour a chicken coop, ride little tractors and play on an extensive playground and run through a watering hole!






Everyone was worn out after the farm and fell asleep super early Saturday night. Sunday we were up for Sunday School and church in the church I grew up in. It was great to sit in Sunday School and hear my dad share his vast experiences and knowledge and see all the familiar faces. Then I headed to my friend, Michele's house for our annual Fab 5 reunion with Michele, Darcee and Amy (missed you Tanya!). We had a great time reminiscing about OT school and looking at pictures from our younger days! It's great to see we haven't aged at all!!!

Me, Darcee, Amy and Michele (minus Tanya!)The Fab 5 kids

Next up was visiting with my friend Karen and her two little girls Morgan and Kendall. I've known Karen since we were 4 years old. Ever since that day she asked me to play at the little chalkboard desks in preschool. Melanie and Kylie had a blast with her two little girls, but it was short lived and no one wanted to part ways at the end of the night.

Kylie, Melanie and Morgan

Kendall and Karen

Monday was spent letting the girls play, play, play. Mom kept all my old toys including Strawberry Shortcakes (the old version), Little People (when they used to be wooden), Barbies, dolls, board games and card games. That night we threw together and impromptu party for everyone to come say goodbye to us. My grandmother, Aunt Freddie, my brother and his family, Karen and her kids and Kim and her boyfriend Rich all came. It was a great going away!

Puzzle time with Great Grandma

The Party!

Kim and Rich

It was good to see how my dad is holding up with his chemo treatments too. He does get very tired and has to stay out of the sun, but all in all he kept up with our crazy schedule pretty well. Thanks for everything!

The Fonz

Here's some nastalgia for you. I showed this to the girls so they would know who Fonzie was and they thought it was really weird!! It was hard to explain the whole Mork thing.

iPhones, tomtoms and the Fonz

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday. . . Janet and Dean (along with Tom) were very gracious with a gift of a tomtom GPS system so I could navigate my way more easily when I have to go to Boston and unfamiliar places. Thanks!

Also, Tom was in the need of a new cell phone and has been eyeing the new iPhone since it came out a couple of weeks ago. We were planning a trip to Braintree anyway, where there just happens to be an Apple store, so we checked them out and before we knew it, we left with two iPhones (I had to get a new phone too if we were switching services). Here is a picture of the girls in matching dresses (thanks to Janet too!) and matching iPhones. What a rough life!

The iPhone is great. It has an iPod, calendar (syncs with my calendar on my computer), email, text, internet, youtube, weather reports, etc. Now if it could just do my grocery shopping we'll be all set. We had fun playing with them this week. It is a little cumbersome to make a call - you have to push about 3 buttons no matter what to call someone when we were used to just hitting one number on speed dial. I'm sure they will make improvements to it as time goes on. You can download new applications once they become available.

This has been a crazy, busy week. I've worked more this week to cover a vacation, Melanie has had drama camp everyday, both girls have swim lessons three days a week - Melanie's is at 1:00 and Kylie at 3:00, so we are forced to stay at the beach for 2 1/2 hours those 3 days : ). Melanie finished up with her jump roping class on Tuesday, so that's one less thing to do.

Since it was so busy and next week is equally busy, I was ready to shower and get in PJs after yesterday's swim lesson, but friends of ours were going to see Henry Winkler at a book signing in town and I decided to go. Who could pass up seeing the Fonz? I was glad I went. He has co-authored 15 children's books about Hank Zipzer, a boy with dyslexia who struggles academically. It is based on Henry Winkler's own childhood where he suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia. He gave a speech to the audience before the book signing that was funny and engaging. He really pointed out to us as parents that we should not berate a child for not being able to learn the same way or pace as we think they should. Also he stated that how you learn does not have anything to do with how brilliant you are. The girls enjoyed it as well. The signing itself took a long time because of the crowd. We weren't able to chat with him. He just signed quickly and we got a quick pic.

Vermont!

While Ken and Kim were here, we decided to take a trip to Burlington, Vermont to visit friends (Katie and Dave) and do some sightseeing. Well, ok. . .so it just happened to coincide with the Vermont Brewers Festival, but that was accidental! No planning involved! Well, maybe just a little planning on the guys' part.

But Kim and I stood our ground and made sure that if beer was going to be drunk in large quantities by the guys, we had rights too! So, just outside of Burlington, Vermont is Waterbury - Home of Ben and Jerry's! Guess where we stopped on our way there?

So, what's good at Ben and Jerry's? Well, Kim and I sampled a new flavor in honor of Elton John's first ever Vermont concert - Goodbye to Yellow Brickle Road (yum!), Tom had Coconut Seven Layer (he was in coconut heaven, but it melted really fast!), Melanie had Sweet Cream and Cookies, Kylie enjoyed a Strawberry Cheesecake milkshake and Ken had (ready for this??) Vanilla! It was fun taking the factory tour and seeing how the ice cream is made and visiting the flavor Graveyard where all the retired flavors are gone and buried, but the best part was the actual ice cream eating!

Next stop, Burlington and our hotel. I have to say it was the best hotel stay we have ever had because our room opened right up to the pool. At first they put us in a non -pool room, but because of some rowdy beer guzzling neighbors and the fact that our reservation said "pool side" I asked to be switched. I'm so glad I did because the girls had a blast and half the time had the pool to themselves. While having fun, they also worked on their swim skills. Kylie put her head ALL the way under for the first, second and third times and Melanie learned to be more confident with taking breaths while swimming without stopping to put her feet down and jumping into the deep end.

The view from our room

Our personal poolside porch

Dave and Katie did a great job finding us a babysitter so we could all enjoy the beer fest. Her name was Brianna and she is working on being a lifeguard - so perfect. She brought her suit and swam with the girls, got them ready for bed, turned on a movie and they were both asleep by 9:00. Amazing! And she cleaned our room - straightened our shoes, organized the movies and untangled the portable DVD player cords that I have been ignoring for months! I wonder if she travels to babysit????

I didn't take my camera to the beer fest, but here is how it works - you paid one flat fee and got a souvenier glass and 10 drink tickets. Then you go stand in line after line after line. You get one drink and get in the next line and drink it while you wait. By the time you get up to the front your last drink is gone. I tried many different kinds of brews, none of which I really remember the names of. Spuyten Devyl comes to mind (sour apple flavor), Pomegranate Ale was another one. Tom took a ton of pics, so you'll have to wait until his blog update for those. I left my camera behind. Luckily the drink glasses were small enough that 10 drinks really only felt like 2.

Sunday we went to breakfast with everyone; Ken, Kim, Dave, Katie and their two kids - Grace and JD. Here are some breakfast pics:

We said goodbye to our friends and then went on to do our own family activities. First up: The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. It was a fun, informative trip into how they make teddy bears and of course after the factory tour, we were let out into the gift shop where the girls were very eager to be able to take home their own genuine Vermont Teddy Bears. But at $49 each, we were strong and led them to the smaller $10 Bear-O-Gram versions of the Vermont Teddy Bears and left with a few dollars.

After the Teddy Bear factory, it started raining, so we took a break and headed back to the hotel for some pool time and naptime (Tom). Once we were refreshed we walked through the rain to the ECHO Aquarium and Science Center that sits right on Lake Champlain. We had fun digging for Beluga Whale bones, learning about the formation of Lake Champlain and the surrounding mountains, seeing a variety of marine animals, making a weather report, learning about Champ, the Lake's mythical creature similar to the Loch Ness Monster and making a music video (may appear on Tom's blog).

Then it was off to dinner at the Vermont Pub and Brewery. Unfortunately this was our least favorite dining experience of the weekend. Melanie was freezing cold after being in the rain and then the air conditioner, so she shivered throughout the meal and our sweet potato fries were cold. Oh well, it can't all be great. Another swim Sunday night, then to bed for us. It was a long day!

Monday we woke up early, had ANOTHER swim and then packed up to leave. Before we left Burlington we enjoyed breakfast at a cute little diner and then browsed up and down Church Street.



I had to take a picture of the table and chairs at the diner because I think we had this same set when I was a kid - maybe in a different color, right Mom?

Church Street

The Red Sqare - a place us grown ups went after the Beer Fest

After leaving Burlington we headed to Shelburne Farms. What had been a pretty nice day turned into another rain shower, but not to be deterred, we went to the farm anyway and toured the facilities. It would have been better had it not been raining because there are miles and miles of walking trails around the farm's beautiful landscape. The kids enjoyed the indoor stuff, though too. They got to pet some cows, goats, sheep and chickens, play in the farm kids' area and witness cheese making.

All in all, it was a pretty low budget (for as much as we did) and educational trip. The kids learned how to make ice cream, teddy bears and cheese (and almost Magic Hat beer, but we ran out of time for that tour).