Best beach day
This is our favourite beach. It’s never too busy, but there are plenty of interesting people to watch. And lots of waves.
We settle in, spread out blankets and towels, and stay awhile. We take picnic food and eat in the sand. I read.
Some of us build.
Some of us cast ourselves upon the sand … face-first.
The water is really cold at this time of year. The sand is hot. Plus we were all up late last night burning things in the bonfire. So we’re tired. We can do whatever we want. We’re on holiday.
Bliss.
Camping
Camping with class: two rooms, bay windows, cereal buffet. (We buy cereal only in the summertime, as a treat, and it’s a good strategy for gaining an extra half hour of parental dozing).
Notice CJ’s eye? We like to make it a tradition to have at least one child with a mystery ailment on our Canada Day camping trip. This time it was CJ and a well-placed bug bite that made him look like a miniature boxer, post-bout. CJ also starred in a classic first-aid moment of panic while Kevin was in Tim Horton’s getting coffee (about an hour after this photo was taken). The kids and I were waiting in the car. CJ started yelling about something up his nose. “Did he say ‘rock’?” I asked (not at all calmly). Yup, a little fossil he’d found on the farm and decided to put up his nose (“Why?” the others wondered, but there are no answers to questions like these). In short order, the rock was removed. By lollipop stem. As grabbed from one of the car’s compartments (what? no first aid kit?). Quick thinking, Mama. AppleApple thought it might cheer CJ up to get to suck on said lollipop post-op. But we saved it for later. Because you never know.
This is the fifth summer of camping on Chach and B’s lawn, under the apple tree. Is it an apple tree? Lots of birds singing in the dawn.
Next on the day’s agenda: the beach. But first, a detour for some coffee. Lord have mercy.
Annual burning of the schoolwork
Albus saves his schoolwork all year long in anticipation of this wonderful moment. This year, his sisters joined in, too, and CJ spent the evening racing around, searching the grass for things to burn. Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for providing the bonfire. And the land for pitching a tent. And the indoor plumbing (not pictured).
Happy Canada Day!
From our chalkboard to you!
Last Day
… of school, of course!
This is the latest that I remember the kids having to go: right until the last day of June. No wonder AppleApple threw her backpack aside and her arms in the air with a whoop of joy!
We said goodbye. Fooey has had the same teacher for her two kindergarten years, and what a loving and caring teacher she has been for my girl, watching her grow and nurturing her all the way along. “She’s half mine, you know,” her teacher said to me, as we said goodbye. AppleApple has also had the same teacher for two years. She wondered, a little bit teary-eyed: “Why is it so much harder saying goodbye to a wonderful teacher after two years than after just one?”
Well, then. Let’s get this summer started. As Albus would say (in truly the sweetest way possible, every morning to me): “Smell ya later, school!”