Going with the Greens: Dear Blog....I got it figured out!

Dear Blog,
I am so so so so so so so so sorry for neglecting you yet again. I triple PROMISE to do better this time. Really. Again with that 4th grade diary guilt! But seriously, a lot has been happening...some more trying times in all areas of my life and just a lot of activities going on that it has been hard to keep up. Aside from all the sadness, I am really excited because I now have summer figured out! Yay for me! So there are 3 1/2 days of school left. The 2010-2011 school year is about to come to an end. I really don't understand how time can just fly by so quickly leaving you spinning and feeling dizzy. And all of the end of year "things" don't help the matter because they just hurry the last few weeks of school along. But at least I feel as though I have a grip on summer. In my last blog I was pretty worried. However I have a plan. Both Kaitlyn and Zac love, love, love basketball. Well there just happens to be a basketball camp run at their schools the whole week after school gets out. It runs from 9-3 Mon.-Fri. So week one out of school will really just be very similar to when school was in. I will drop them off at 9, head to Dunkin Donuts for my large black iced coffee (yes black, but I carry my own creamer!), and then head to the track for my daily walk with Brayden and Gray. We will then either run some errands or head home. Gray will take his usual 11:30-2ish nap and then it will be time to pick up Zac and Kaitlyn. So week one out of school will not be much different. Speaking of the love of basketball (which by the way, for the life of me I really don't "get" that love), Kaitlyn and Zac have played summer basketball at BYC for the last 2 years and they are doing that again this summer. Fortunately, their games are on the same nights, basically the same times and amazingly at the same place! So Tuesday nights this summer are spoken for. Summer basketball has been a part of our summers for the past 2 years and we have also had another fun tradition. And that tradition is Make Me Mine Monday. Every Monday, a different child gets to choose what is for dinner. They are supposed to help me prepare it as well, but that rarely happens. The kids get so excited for Make Me Mine Monday. They want me to do it year round, but I think it would lose its luster if it were a weekly occurrence. Zac gets to go first this summer and so far he is set on Chili Cheese Dogs...I make my homemade chili and top a Market Day hot dog with the chili, sprinkle some cheddar cheese on it and it is fabulous! So Monday nights are filled with fun food and Tuesdays are filled with basketball! Another summer tradition is for us to belong to a pool. Now I consider myself a bit of a pool whore. We have lived here in Delaware County for 11 years and have belonged to 4 different swim clubs! We started out at the infamous Hidden Hollow Swim Club located at the beautiful Linvilla Orchards (remember I chose my first dentist here because his office overlooked Linvilla!). We belonged there for 3 years. Loved it!!! Then when Kaitlyn was in Kindergarten we joined another pool (can't even remember the name of it, it was like a one summer stand!) because all of her little school friends went there. We then moved to Chadds Ford and joined Brandywine Country Club. Sounds snooty right? Well they offered summer pool memberships so that was why we joined. All the "real" country club members kind of looked down on us lowly summer pool only members. We went to Brandywine for 2 summers. After Brandywine we headed to a close by club, High Point. We loved High Point and belonged there the past 2 summers. I'm a little worried because we are actually "pooless" this summer. It causes me to have some anxiety. I just couldn't see joining a pool this summer with the age that Gray is, he just runs in every direction. Plus we are going to the beach for 2 weeks. Also, my best friend, Kristin, now has a pool and Gramy and Papa are living at a place that has a pool. Not to mention Jason's baby...our 18ft by 4ft deep Intex pool with a salt water filtration system that we have in our backyard. So no pool this summer. It's hard for me. We always belonged to a swim club. Although my parents were a bit more loyal to their clubs than I am. I first remember going to the Family Center. And then the rest of my childhood we went to Northwest Swim Club. I became a lifeguard at the age of 14 and began working at the city pools. Bethlehem is considered a city but it isn't much different from where we are today. I love that they had city pools all over the city. There was West Side, Memorial, Clearview, Stark and a few others. These weren't "club" pools, anyone could go and you just either paid a little daily fee or bought a membership for the summer which was a fraction of the cost of the clubs. We don't have those kind of pools in this area. There are only country clubs or private swim clubs...no city or township pools. That's always been a bit of a disappointment for me. So pooless we are this summer...I'm bummed but hoping for the best! So week one is taken care of with basketball camp, Monday nights are good with Make me Mine Monday and Tuesday nights are basketball for Kaitlyn and Zac. The week after basketball camp we head back to the beautiful Corolla, NC at the Currituck Club for two glorious weeks. I am beyond excited for this vacation. I love the beach more than anything. After we were married, Jason moved me to a little cottage 3 blocks from the beach and 1 block from the bay. We lived there for 13 months and I was in heaven! I belong at the beach. I lived at Ocean City, MD for 2 summers in college. Loved it! When I was growing up we went to Long Beach Island every summer for 1 or 2 weeks. It was the best. The Outerbanks is a lot like Long Beach Island only without all the Jersey and New York people! And when we are there, my life doesn't change that much. I make breakfast every morning and then lunches to take to the beach. We then make dinner (grill, crock pot or something else). We occasionally go out but mostly just enjoy our time together at the beach and are happy to eat our meals there. I'm really looking forward to our trip. After we get back from the beach we have one week without any plans. And then for the week of July 18th Kaitlyn and Zac will be going to the Township camp. They love this camp so much. It is just from 9-12 for 5 days but they adore this camp. This year Kaitlyn will be a Junior Counselor! Crazy! That leaves us without about 6 weeks of freedom and I'm looking forward to day trips (maybe Sesame Place, Crayola Factory, the Zoo?), a trip to Leesburg to visit Aunt Cheri and her amazing water park and maybe a day trip with just Aunt Cheri and I to the DE beaches. And then sadly it will be Labor Day weekend and I will be getting my 4th grader and 7th grader ready for their new years (Enrichment Math for Zac and Enrichment English for Kaitlyn!) and Brayden will be heading to a new preschool for 3 days a week. Time flies! I'm trying to embrace every day and make some good memories along the way.
So what have we been doing the past couple of weeks? Plenty! Here's a little glimpse...