The End of Summer

Even though it's still very hot out, the signs that summer is coming to an end are all around. My daughter starts school on Monday and a lot of kids are already back to school. Labor Day Weekend (aka Dragon Con) is next weekend and of course, September is only a few hours away.

This summer wasn't very exciting for us. We went to a few birthday parties and went swimming several times. We watched Star Wars in the park and went camping. But a lot of our summer was inside because of the heat and the thunderstorms.

I'm not a huge fan of summer. I'm either roasting or freezing. The weather has been crazy this year with a lot more extreme storms than usual. So I'm glad to see summer going away.

Of course, that's partly because we have a lot of exciting stuff coming up in the fall. Disney World mostly, but also Emily's birthday. We are also going to go to the Eliada Corn Maze with the Girl Scouts and of course, there is Halloween.

Even though it probably won't feel like Fall for a while, I'll be decking my halls with Halloween things as soon as we get home from Dragon Con. Mostly because I love my Halloween stuff but that means I can have it up longer since we'll be at Disney the first week in October.

I hope you all had a wonderful summer and have an equally great autumn season!

A Summer of Swimming

When this summer started, I made it my goal to go to the local pool once a week. I didn't quite make that because of storms and heath issues, but we've gone quite a bit.

The last few years we haven't gone swimming much at all and when we were at Disney last year, Emily kept getting out of the pool to wipe the water off of her face. She had fun but she hated being splashed, especially in the face.

I knew the more we went to the pool, the better she'd be with water. She has loved the pool, though her swimming is still not great. I was super proud of her that she put her face in the water a few weeks ago and last Sunday, she went under. I had to hold her and go under with her, but it's progress!

I think swimming is a skill that everyone should have. I'm not a strong swimming but I know how to do it. Next summer, we'll probably get Emily into actual swimming lessons now that she's less afraid of the water.

The local pool closes for the season on August 15th - I'm hoping to get a couple more trips in before the summer is over.

The Birthday Party Gauntlet

A few weekends ago, Emily was invited to two back to back birthday parties. Originally, Todd planned to come with us, but since he got a new job where he works on the weekend, I had to endure the birthday parties solo.

Now I don’t mind taking Emily to parties, but I’m an introvert and a geek. It’s hard for me to make normal conversation with people sometimes. So the whole afternoon was really tiring – it made me think of the episode of Hercules where Xena has to go through the gauntlet. Of course, with less hitting and pain than she had to endure.

The first one was an outdoor pool party. It’s been unseasonably cool for August

in NC, so it was I wasn't sure if Emily would want to swim. She did and ended up having a great time splashing in the pool and tossing water balloons. Though she would stop playing every little bit because she want her towel and want me to hold her. My pants got a little wet.

I talked with the other parents. The mom of one of the birthday girls and I talked about Disney since they are going a few weeks after we are. The same birthday girl’s grandmother is someone I know from church so I talked to her a bit too. I also took a lot of pictures on my phone.

As the time when on, it got even more overcast and Emily got cold. We got her changed and then it was time for cake. They had a bunch of food to munch on plus hotdogs so we were able to have a good lunch. There was cookie cake too which Emily liked, but was more interested in getting more

fruit.

We left with just enough time go get across town to the 2nd party. At this point, I was starting to feel tired. I hadn't slept well the night before since Todd had been working all night and it was starting to catch up with me.

The 2nd party was a Dora themed party at the Little Gym. The kids got to run around and play on gym equipment while the Dora theme song played over and over. This was the most painful part of the day because I don’t like that song even once. But dozens of times got to be very grating on my ears. The guy running the party would stop the song o’ doom to do some activities with the kids. They played with a bouncy mat, got to run around after bubbles and had some fun with a parachute.

Emily’s best friend, William, was there so she spent most of her time running and playing with him. Once it was time for cake and presents, I was really tired. We stayed long enough to watch the birthday girl open her presents and to have some cake. Then we headed back home.

Even though it was tiring for me, I was glad we went to both parties because Emily had a great time. It was nice for her to see her friends since she didn't have a whole lot of playdates this summer.